AT&T acquires DirecTV for $48.5 Billion
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 05/19/2014 08:07 AM
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AT&T has purchased DirecTV for a whopping $48.5 Billion in a deal that was approved by both boards on Sunday. The merging of the two companies' will expand AT&T's customer database and incorporate a vast set of products to customers nationwide.
According to USAToday, AT&T would pay DirecTV shareholders $95 per share. Including DirecTV's debt, the total transaction's value is about $67.1 billion.
"Customers will be able to get wireless, voice, data, TV and home security from the same company nationwide," says Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics. "It allows (AT&T) to grow the share of consumers' spending on telecom."
One particular item of interest, among several, that AT&T and DirecTV mention is the net neutrality aspect and what this merger will cause. AT&T says that the combined company would abide by net neutrality rules established in 2010 -- that ISPs can't discriminate against various types of legal content -- but tossed out earlier this year. The Federal Communications Commission is currently in the process of recasting the rules.
USAToday points out that the growing howls of protest from net neutrality proponents' will continue for months given that AT&T's deal removes yet another competitor in the TV and Internet businesses. It's widely known that DirecTV's satellite-delivered Internet is slow compared to cable companies, but it still has millions of customers.
The increased concentration of power among the few who provide broadband Internet would give AT&T more leverage if -- as the FCC has preliminarily proposed -- ISPs are ultimately allowed to charge for "fast lanes" of the Internet for content providers that are willing to pay for them.
According to USAToday, AT&T would pay DirecTV shareholders $95 per share. Including DirecTV's debt, the total transaction's value is about $67.1 billion."Customers will be able to get wireless, voice, data, TV and home security from the same company nationwide," says Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics. "It allows (AT&T) to grow the share of consumers' spending on telecom."
One particular item of interest, among several, that AT&T and DirecTV mention is the net neutrality aspect and what this merger will cause. AT&T says that the combined company would abide by net neutrality rules established in 2010 -- that ISPs can't discriminate against various types of legal content -- but tossed out earlier this year. The Federal Communications Commission is currently in the process of recasting the rules.
USAToday points out that the growing howls of protest from net neutrality proponents' will continue for months given that AT&T's deal removes yet another competitor in the TV and Internet businesses. It's widely known that DirecTV's satellite-delivered Internet is slow compared to cable companies, but it still has millions of customers.
The increased concentration of power among the few who provide broadband Internet would give AT&T more leverage if -- as the FCC has preliminarily proposed -- ISPs are ultimately allowed to charge for "fast lanes" of the Internet for content providers that are willing to pay for them.
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