After reporting that AT&T was once again looking for potential buyers for DirecTV, the company is reportedly now fielding “lowball” offers at under $20 billion.
The New York Post gave an update on the potential sale of DirecTV, with a source sharing that opening bids but DirecTV’s valuation at around $15.75 billion. AT&T purchased DirecTV for $49 billion in 2015, resulting in taking on around $18 billion in debt.
Reports that AT&T is interested in selling DirecTV in an effort to offload debt have been popping up for some time as the company continually loses subscribers. AT&T lost nearly 900,000 pay TV customers in Q2, while pivoting to focus on AT&T TV and HBO Max as its core video services.
“It is very, very surprising they would sell DirecTV at such a low price — that’s a serious destruction of value,” an anonymous former AT&T executive told The Post.
While Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has repeatedly said that a merger between Dish and DirecTV is “inevitable,” the report from The Post notes that Dish is not currently participating in the auction. Private equity firms Apollo and Platinum Equity Partners are two likely participants.