AT&T Buying DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

AT&T is acquiring satellite TV provider DirecTV in a deal worth $48.5 billion. This will bring 20 million more U.S. television subscribers under AT&T's roof, making it the second biggest TV provider, behind Comcast. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and to help that along, AT&T says it will sell its 8% stake in America Movil, which is a competitor to DirecTV in some areas. "By acquiring the country’s biggest satellite television operator, AT&T will help bolster its competitive position against Comcast. Though pay television is considered a mature market whose subscriber growth has slowed dramatically in recent years, the business nonetheless generates billions of dollars in cash. ... Part of the attraction may be DirecTV’s ample cash flow. While its business has shown little growth in recent years, it generated about $8 billion in earnings last year. Much of that will go toward future investments in growth, AT&T said, including bidding at least $9 billion for wireless network capacity that the government plans to auction off soon. By gaining satellite TV, AT&T may also be able to free up capacity on its existing broadband network."

Re:They still don't support net neutrality...

[Billly Gates]

who gives a f*k? cable television is something noone cares about... and anyone who does is a dumbass... this is the age of the internet.

Right and what if 4 years from now your internet connection must include TV and HBO at $200 a month or NO internet for you! (soup Nazi voice from Seinfeld)

Re:$48.5 billion?

[Bengie]

First off, that $5.7b is for the first quarter, you know, 3 months. Second, that only applies to the 11.3mil Uverse customers. How many industries can get $166/month average per customer?

Re:This has to be a troll post

[hackus]

Possibly the worst news since the TimeWarner merger crapola.

You think your DirectTV PVR can't download your movies now?

Wait till they start using the CRUD that is AT&T's network.

Absolutely unacceptable.

The reason why they are doing the acquisition is because Uverse sucks to HIGH HEAVEN. It is even worse than DirectTV, if you can imagine that.

Re:This has to be a troll post

[ShanghaiBill]

AT&T can't be allowed to get any bigger than it is now. They had to break it up once already.

The AT&T broken up in 1983 was a different company. The current company called AT&T used to be Southwestern Bell. It acquired the rights to the name "AT&T" in 2005.

 

Re:This has to be a troll post

[ArhcAngel]

SBC (formerly known as Southwestern Bell Corporation) acquired the rights by buying the original AT&T in 2005 for 16 billion [cnn.com] so it's still part of the same company. SBC had already swallowed up numerous other baby bells prior [wikipedia.org] to acquiring AT&T.

Re: Well.

[ArhcAngel]

Which is all relatively pointless when their connection to the backbone [wikipedia.org] is fscked on purpose [level3.com] to keep your streaming choppy.

Srsly?

[ArhcAngel]

Okay, so let them make that part of the "cost of doing business", like other just about every other business has to do. Farmers also have to have fuel to operate and haul equipment, seed, fertilizer/herbicide/pesticide, and product to and from "civilization", and they manage to do that just fine without my fuel getting taxed extra to pay for their fuel. I'd argue that fuel is a lot more important to the process than cheap high-speed Internet.

Fuel Tax in the USA [wikipedia.org]
IRS definitions for non-taxable fuel uses [irs.gov] "On a farm for farming purposes"
You might want to do a little research BEFORE embarrassing yourself on /. which is pretty hard given all the competition but you have won the /. lottery this night my friend.

Re:This has to be a troll post

[SumDog]

Yea I remember that segment when it originally aired:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/955486/