Commentary From AT&T On DIRECTV’s Merger With Dish Network

(CTN News) – It was back in 2021 when AT&T sold 30 percent of its economic stake in DIRECTV along with U-Verse and AT&T TV to TPG Capital in order to form a new DIRECTV that would include both services.

There have been numerous rumors and talks about the possibility of DIRECTV and Dish Network merging over the past few years.

Dish Network and DIRECTV have attempted to merge several times in the past few years, but none of the attempts have succeeded.

In the first place, there were growing concerns about the merger leading to the formation of a monopoly, as streaming services have been able to satisfy the growing concerns.

There is a possibility that DIRECTV will absorb Dish Network if the merger is approved, assuming that it is approved at all.

In his keynote address at the recent Bank of America C-Suite Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Conference, AT&T’s CFO Pascal Desroches shed some light on the possibility of DIRECTV buying Dish Network.

In terms of our satellite platform, we have separated it from the satellite itself, and we have given the platform to our partners at TPG for optimization. In my opinion, they do a good job of optimizing that asset.”

As he continued, “Before they decide to do something with another party, whether it be Dish or someone else, I think that our daily well-defined bar is something we have that we would need to take into consideration.”

Obviously, Desroches isn’t saying that AT&T wouldn’t consider taking an offer, but he is saying that DIRECTV would have to be a very impressive deal for AT&T to give up such an asset as DIRECTV.

As far as the asset is concerned, we are in a really good position. Is it possible to look at other opportunities as well? As a matter of fact, we always do, that is what we do for a living.

There would be a lot of work that needs to be done before we can try to accelerate more value creation, but the bar would be pretty high.”

It is possible that a merger between Dish Network and DIRECTV could help both companies increase declines in their subscription numbers.

On the other hand, AT&T Dish Network only reports 7.42 million subscribers, while DIRECTV has an estimated 13.1 million subscribers.

Together, the two companies could be able to keep up with the competition, both from other cable companies and streaming services, through their combined efforts.

Is AT&T overpriced?

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