TPG acquires DirecTV (AT&T's 70% stake)
- Acquirer
- TPG
- Target
- DirecTV (AT&T's 70% stake)
- Deal Value
- $7.6B
- Status
- Announced
- Announced
- September 30, 2024
What happened
In coordinated September 30 announcements, AT&T agreed to sell its remaining 70% stake in DirecTV to private-equity firm TPG for $7.6 billion in payments through 2029, and DirecTV separately agreed to acquire EchoStar's video distribution business — Dish TV and Sling TV — for a nominal $1 plus the assumption of billions in debt via an exchange requiring bondholder consent. The deals would unite the two satellite-TV rivals, with roughly 18 million combined subscribers, under TPG's full ownership.
Why it matters
Two decades after regulators blocked this same merger to protect competition, it arrived as a rescue — two shrinking fleets lashed together for the descent, while AT&T booked its final tuition payment on a $67 billion lesson about buying media. The strategic residue matters most: EchoStar emerged unburdened of dying video, remade as a pure spectrum-and-wireless company. That reshaped Boost's odds — and set up EchoStar's next chapter as the industry's most interesting wildcard.
Source: PR Newswire
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