AT&T Finally Gets Out of the Media Business With DIRECTV Sale

With the sale of its 70% stake in satellite television provider DIRECTV, telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T) is finally fully out of the media business.The company wasted many billions of dollars over the past decade in an ill-fated attempt to transform itself into a media conglomerate. It paid a staggering $48.5 billion in 2015 to acquire DIRECTV only to see subscribers jump ship. It followed up that deal a few years later with the $100+ billion acquisition of Time Warner. The end result of this dealmaking was the epic destruction of shareholder value.AT&T has been unwinding these mistakes for years. The company previously sold a 30% stake in DIRECTV to a private equity buyer, and it spun off and merged Time Warner with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery. The remaining 70% stake in DIRECTV has been generating dividends for AT&T, but it also locked up capital that could have been used to pay down debt to invest in the wireless or fiber networks.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool