TPG eyes DirecTV
January 25, 2021
By Chris Forrester
TPG, the former Texas Pacific Group, is in exclusive talks to acquire a stake in AT&T’s DirecTV.
TPG Capital is a private equity investment giant headquartered in San Francisco.
Multiple reports say that TPG is now in the lead to make a move on AT&T’s DirecTV, although news sources differ in the possible size of the purchase with Bloomberg talking of a “significant” stake while Reuters talks of a “minority” holding.
However, both outlets talk of the stake being valued at around $15 billion, although this is a fraction of how much AT&T saw DirecTV valued at about $67 billion (including debt) when it acquired the pay-TV operator back in 2014. AT&T reported that overall it had lost 590,000 subscribers across its assorted pay-TV subsidiaries.
Key to the TPG investment would be AT&T’s target to reduce its net debt below $150 billion.