Nearly six years after buying DirecTV for $48.5 billion, AT&T today announced a deal to sell a minority stake in the business unit and spin it out into a new subsidiary.
AT&T said its deal with private equity firm TPG Capital values the TV business at $16.25 billion. A press release said that AT&T and TPG “will establish a new company named DirecTV that will own and operate AT&T’s US video business unit consisting of the DirecTV, AT&T TV, and U-verse video services.”
AT&T will own 70 percent of the spun-off DirecTV company’s common equity while TPG will own 30 percent. DirecTV in its new form “will be jointly governed by a board with two representatives from each of AT&T and TPG, as well as a fifth seat for the CEO, which at closing will be Bill Morrow, CEO of AT&T’s US video unit,” the announcement said.
AT&T acknowledged that its DirecTV purchase didn’t work out as planned.
“With our acquisition of DirecTV, we invested approximately $60 billion in the US video business,” AT&T said in materials distributed to reporters. “It’s fair to say that some aspects of the transaction have not played out as we had planned, such as pay TV households in the US declining at a faster pace across the industry than anticipated when we announced the deal back in 2014. In fact, we took a $15.5 billion impairment on the business in 4Q20.”
Focus on 5G, fiber, and HBO Max
Separating DirecTV into a new unit will help AT&T focus on its key “strategic” areas of 5G mobile service, fiber Internet, and HBO Max, AT&T said.
“As the pay-TV industry continues to evolve, forming a new entity with TPG to operate the US video business separately provides the flexibility and dedicated management focus needed to continue meeting the needs of a high-quality customer base and managing the business for profitability,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said. “TPG is the right partner for this transaction and creating a new entity is the right way to structure and manage the video business for optimum value creation.”
The companies said they expect to close their transaction in the second half of 2021 and that it “is subject to customary closing conditions and to regulatory reviews.” AT&T said it expects to receive $7.6 billion in cash from the partial sale and that it will use the money to reduce its debt.
8 million TV customers fled AT&T
AT&T has lost over 8 million customers since early 2017 from its Premium TV services, which include DirecTV satellite, U-verse wireline video, and the newer AT&T TV online service. Total customers in that category decreased from over 25 million in early 2017 to 16.5 million at the end of 2020.
“Since AT&T closed the DirecTV acquisition in 2015, the business has generated cash flows of more than $4 billion per year, and the company expects this to continue in 2021,” today’s announcement said.
DirecTV’s deal with NFL Sunday Ticket apparently will not be disrupted, as AT&T said it will continue to “fund NFL Sunday Ticket for 2021 and 2022 (up to a $2.5B cumulative cap).”
Current video customers should not expect major changes, AT&T said.
“Existing AT&T video customers will become DirecTV customers at close and will be able to keep their video service and any bundled wireless or broadband services as well as associated discounts,” AT&T said. “AT&T and TPG are committed to a smooth transition and seamless customer experience and will work to further improve customer service and bring new features to DirecTV’s video services.”