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AT&T wants to take TV seriously. The company has announced plans to acquire satellite provider DirecTV, and if the deal is approved by regulators, the merged firms will control some 26 million TV subscribers. That would make it second only to the hypothetical 30 million accounted for by the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, which is still pending. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the boards of each company had approved the deal for a price of $95 a share — which values the satellite TV provider at $48.5 billion. In a press release, AT&T confirmed the news, adding that the acquisition will be a stock-and-cash deal.The two companies already work together to bundle DirecTV with phone and internet from AT&T, and the opportunity of offering complete packages was likely a part of the appeal for the acquisition. AT&T currently has very limited TV service through U-verse, which is available in a limited number of states and covers roughly 5.7 million customers. Meanwhile, DirecTV has struggled as it, unlike cable companies, cannot make up for lost TV revenues by transitioning users to internet packages. AT&T notes in a press release that the acquisition will let the company "offer bundles that include video, high-speed broadband, and mobile services using all of its sales channels" including "AT&T’s 2,300 retail stores and thousands of authorized dealers."
