AT&T is reportedly trying to sell DirecTV to private-equity investors just five years after buying the satellite provider. The negotiations with potential buyers come after millions of customers ditched DirecTV over the past two years, and could value DirecTV at much less than the $49 billion AT&T paid for it.
“AT&T is seeking private-equity investors to buy the majority of its DirecTV satellite-television business, helping it cope with a major drag on its operations, according to people familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg wrote yesterday. AT&T and its advisers at Goldman Sachs “have been in talks with private-equity suitors about the satellite TV unit,” with potential bidders including Apollo Global Management and Platinum Equity, The Wall Street Journal reported.
AT&T could end up selling DirecTV for far less than it paid five years ago. “Any deal for the satellite TV service would be sizable but likely a far cry from the $49 billion AT&T paid for it in 2015,” the Journal wrote, quoting sources familiar with the talks as saying that “a deal could value the business below $20 billion.”