Exclusive: the TPG purchasing firm at the helm of AT & T’s DirecTV stake – sources

(Reuters) – Private equity firm TPG has held exclusive talks to acquire a minority stake in AT & T Inc.’s satellite TV division, DirecTV, in a deal that would allow the US wireless operator to cut back its net debt of about $ 150 billion. with the matter said Friday.

It was not possible to know the exact price that TPG is willing to pay, but sources said the deal could value DirecTV at more than $ 15 billion. If the negotiations are successfully concluded, an agreement could be announced in the coming weeks, the sources added, who asked for anonymity because the matter is confidential.

AT&T and TPG declined to comment.

AT&T shares rose nearly 1% in the news, to an intraday high of $ 29.05, giving the company a market capitalization of about $ 210 billion. Shares closed unofficially on Friday at $ 28.92, up 0.3%.

Advanced talks with TPG are the culmination of an auction that AT&T presented to DirecTV for several months. The deal would crystallize financial success for AT&T, which valued DirecTV at about $ 67 billion including debt when it agreed to acquire it in 2014.

Since then, DirecTV has been bleeding from subscribers, and users have switched to less expensive online streaming services like Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Prime’s Prime service.

AT&T has said it lost 590,000 subscribers in the third quarter spanning its DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV platforms. It is under pressure to reduce its debt inflation as it invests more in 5G and other wireless services.

AT & T’s largest deal, its $ 85 billion acquisition of Time Warner multimedia conglomerate in 2018, has worsened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as movie attendance falls their film revenue.

WarnerMedia, the segment that contains HBO and the company’s film and television studio, generated revenue of $ 7.5 billion in the third quarter of 2020, down from $ 8.4 billion in the previous quarter.

Thanks to more people looking for home entertainment, however, AT&T reported 38 million subscribers in the United States on both its HBO premium TV channel and HBO Max during the third quarter, reaching its 2021 target a year earlier .

TPG, which had previously invested in companies in the sector, such as US regional cable TV operator Astound and Spanish broadcaster Univision, has assets under management of about $ 85 billion, according to its website.