AT&T Inc.
T. 2.39%
Its DirectTV unit received bids to evaluate more than 15 billion satellite-TV services, including debt, as people familiar with the matter say, with the wind of the auction widely viewing the resolution.
Churchill Capital Corp IV was among those who submitted bids above that level,
CCIV 0.81%
A blank-check company run by former banker Michael Klein, people said. Apollo Global Management Inc.,
A.P.O. -2.48%
Many people have been watching for a long time to buy DirectTV, which offered a business value of less than 15 15 billion, some said.
People said that private equity firm TPG had also bid for DirectTV.
The auction is in its late stages and if the company has to deal with one of the suitors, it could be completed early next year.
The deal could allow AT&T to relinquish control, even when it retains a majority stake in the business, while directTV’s developed financial results – which is the main purpose of the transaction.
In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that the fast-shrinking business was tapped by AT&T to search for deals from its books. The media and telecom company bought Directive in 2015 for about billion 49 billion, or 66 66 billion, including debt. (Its Latin American satellite business, also acquired by DirectTV Takeover, is now housed in a separate unit called Vrio.)
The pay-TV business has lost millions of subscribers in recent years as viewers switch to on-demand entertainment services like Netflix. Inc.
AT&T’s pay-TV losses have fallen sharply over competitors such as Comcast Corpo.
And Dish Network Inc.
In the last two years, the company has raised US 7 7 million. Video connection shaded.
AT&T’s stock carries the weight of consumer losses, which have barely increased over the past five years and are down about 20% so far this year. The market value of the company is about 20 220 billion.
AT&T officials have said they are making progress in stabilizing the domestic pay-TV unit so that its customer losses come along with the industry average. But chief executive John Stanky also said he was ready to flood any business with the company’s core wireless, broadband and streaming-video units.
“We still have opportunities to do some things around revisiting our portfolio,” Mr. Stankey told UBS Group on Tuesday. A.G.
Investor Council. “We will be forced to look at those tough decisions.”
Large asset sales will give the company more resources to keep improving its wireless service, which still generates more than half of its prefix profits, without threatening all of the company’s critical credit ratings. Analysts expect AT&T and its rivals to earn billions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission in the latest auction of cellular spectrum, which began on Tuesday. Such an auction could saddle cellphone carriers with a one-time bill for their winning licenses.
AT&T has a huge battle chest. Stankey said Tuesday it has 10 10 billion in cash – which it could bid on a wireless license next week. But officials said the potential cost, with marked funds for future debt repayments, should be about 15 15 billion, an annual dividend of about 15 15 billion, and about 21 21 billion for planned capital expenditures.
-Maryam Gottfried contributed to this article.
Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected] and Drew FitzGerald at [email protected]
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