AT&T May Be Selling DirecTV

According to a Wall Street Journal report, AT&T may be considering selling DirecTV.

Shares of AT&T saw a gain of 1% in after hours trading on Wednesday after Wall Street digested the news.
The WSJ also reported that AT&T is additionally considering combining DirecTV with Dish. Shares of Dish rose around 4% on the news.

According to the report, AT&T has weighed several options. “The telecom giant has considered various options, including a spinoff of DirecTV into a separate public company and a combination of DirecTV’s assets with Dish Network, its satellite-TV rival,” the Journal report said, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Reuters, who cited a source, then reported that AT&T Inc and Dish Network Corp are not in discussions over a deal, due to regulatory issues.

AT&T CFO John Stephens said at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference, “So there’s been some stories out there about the industrial logic about putting two satellite providers. That’s been tried from a regulatory perspective. It hasn’t been successful and I don’t know that there’s any change in that regulatory perspective. So understanding industrial logic, put quite frankly, it’s been tried and has been rejected.”

AT&T completed the purchase of DirecTV in July 2015.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.