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AT&T reportedly nears announcement of $50bn DirecTV merger

Helix

Helix

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Executives from AT&T and DirecTV were reportedly close to announcing a $50bn merger on Sunday, the latest in a series of media and telecoms deals that have rattled consumer groups and attracted regulatory scrutiny.

The boards of DirecTV, the US’s largest satellite TV company, and AT&T, the second-largest wireless provider, were due to meet on Sunday to attempt to finalise details of the long-rumoured merger, according to BuzzFeed.


With more than 20 million subscribers in the US and 18 million more in Latin America, DirecTV is the second-largest pay-TV provider behind Comcast, which is currently negotiating the takeover of its second biggest cable rival, Time Warner Cable (TWC).

AT&T reportedly nears announcement of $50bn DirecTV merger | Business | theguardian.com
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here's another one that shouldn't be allowed to happen, IMO.
 
Helix said:
here's another one that shouldn't be allowed to happen, IMO.
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Although I own a whole bunch of AT&T stock and hope it does well, I HATE the business model of cable companies. Here I am, a loyal customer, paying more than a new start-up customer who may just as easily end up stiffing them after three months. The industry needs regulation. Land lines and, yes, even cell phones, aren't treated in the way cable TV rates are. I think it's slimy.
 
MaggieD said:
Although I own a whole bunch of AT&T stock and hope it does well, I HATE the business model of cable companies. Here I am, a loyal customer, paying more than a new start-up customer who may just as easily end up stiffing them after three months. The industry needs regulation. Land lines and, yes, even cell phones, aren't treated in the way cable TV rates are. I think it's slimy.
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i just think we'd be a whole lot better off with more competition, not less. competition is a big driver of the innovation of great products and lower prices.
 
Helix said:
here's another one that shouldn't be allowed to happen, IMO.
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I agree, seems like more and more large companies are getting bigger and bigger by buying out and merging with other companies. When one large company buys out another large company its 10 times worse. The whole thing smells of monopoly big time.

I should also note that I'm getting real tired of large companies breaking off a part of their company and putting it under a new name yet still getting the profits and all other benefits of that company just to avoid the monopoly laws.
 
Helix said:
i just think we'd be a whole lot better off with more competition, not less. competition is a big driver of the innovation of great products and lower prices.
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I don't disagree with you, but it is more like a utility than anything else. It needs regulation. It's hard to have competition when you need hard lines. Here in Illinois we have all these bitsy companies trying to take business away from ComEd (hard lines, of course) because of deregulation requiring ComEd to lease their lines. Half of those bitsy companies are scams. When companies need lines into your home, I just don't see how they can be anything but regulated. (Direct TV, of course, is different.)
 
MaggieD said:
I don't disagree with you, but it is more like a utility than anything else. It needs regulation. It's hard to have competition when you need hard lines. Here in Illinois we have all these bitsy companies trying to take business away from ComEd (hard lines, of course) because of deregulation requiring ComEd to lease their lines. Half of those bitsy companies are scams. When companies need lines into your home, I just don't see how they can be anything but regulated. (Direct TV, of course, is different.)
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It is simple.. in Europe it is a requirement for the landline company (usually the former state monopoly) to lease out capacity to the competition. That alone has created masses of competition on the landline and driven prices down. It has also caused competition on internet services. Varies from country to country and dependent on infrastructure of course.

As for this deal and the TimeWarner/Comcast... horrible idea. They should not merge but in fact be split up!
 
PeteEU said:
It is simple.. in Europe it is a requirement for the landline company (usually the former state monopoly) to lease out capacity to the competition. That alone has created masses of competition on the landline and driven prices down. It has also caused competition on internet services. Varies from country to country and dependent on infrastructure of course.

As for this deal and the TimeWarner/Comcast... horrible idea. They should not merge but in fact be split up!
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Just curious...I can get a landline with unlimited local calling and long distance for $40 (which includes the taxes). The line has call waiting, voice mail, caller I.D., no-charge inside line maintenance etc. What does your home phone cost?
 
PeteEU said:
It is simple.. in Europe it is a requirement for the landline company (usually the former state monopoly) to lease out capacity to the competition. That alone has created masses of competition on the landline and driven prices down. It has also caused competition on internet services. Varies from country to country and dependent on infrastructure of course.

As for this deal and the TimeWarner/Comcast... horrible idea. They should not merge but in fact be split up!
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I agree.
 
It now makes sense why Jerry Jones sold naming rights to AT&T for a bargain rate to his high-tech mega stadium.
 
Another step closer to a monopoly on information exchange,
 
Waiting for the free market purists to tell us why this is such a fantastic thing for rank and file Americans.
 
/shrug

They get too big, stop providing competitive prices, products services and that opens up the way for someone to create a new product or service to beat them. Few big mega companies dominate for long because they do over step the bounds and the market punishes them. Not really excited either way. ATT Uverse is a **** product, I should know I was a Tier II Tech rep for them. The problems with that service are legion.

The real monopolies that are bad are government run monopolies.
 
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