AT&T is reportedly ready to announce a deal for satellite communications company DirecTV on Sunday. Allegedly, DirecTV CEO Mike White has told senior executives that the deal with AT&T is finalized, and details are ready to be released to the public. The deal, rumored to approach $50 billion, will give the combined broadcast entity over 26 million subscribers, rivaling that of Comcast and Time Warner’s accumulated subscriber base.
AT&T is close to announcing that it will buy the No. 1 U.S. satellite TV operator DirecTV, according to people familiar with the matter, in the second potentially transformative deal to jolt the U.S. television industry this year. The No. 2 U.S. cellular operator, which also has some TV and broadband services, has been in active discussions to buy DirecTV for nearly $50 billion, or low to mid-$90s per share, and has been working to finalize a deal in coming weeks, Reuters reported last Monday. The two companies agreed key terms of the proposed transaction and are expected to announce the deal in days pending final approval from each company’s board, one of the people said on Saturday, asking not to be named because the matter is not public.
