AT&T close to selling DirecTV and AT&T TV NOW – report

It's no secret that AT&T is struggling with DirecTV, which is why it's no surprise that the US carrier is looking for potential buyers for its satellite TV business. After raising DirecTV prices a few times in the last year and rebranding some of its TV services, AT&T seems to have had enough of this business and wants to get rid of it so it can start focusing on streaming services.

A new report by CNBC claims that AT&T may have just found a buyer willing to buy a large minority stake in its satellite TV business. According to CNBC sources, the deal would include DirecTV, AT&T TV Now and U-Verse, and would value the business at around $15 billion.

The large minority stake is to be sold to private equity firm TPG and the deal could be announced as early as this week, sources familiar with the matter claim. If the deal goes through, it will offer AT&T some financial leeway thanks to the additional cash. AT&T purchased DirecTV six years ago for no less than $48.5 billion ($67 billion with debt) and is now struggling to pay its debt, which stands at nearly $150 billion.

After losing 3 million customers that were subscribed to its satellite TV services, AT&T is trying to patch up this black hole that sucked a lot of resources and start focusing on streaming services, which are easier to handle and more ... productive. AT&T's HBO Max is the most expensive streaming service on the market costing $15, but that didn't prevent the service's number of activations to double in Q4 2020 to more than 17 million.

There's no telling what will happen with DirecTV, AT&T TV NOW, and U-Verse customers after the deal is announced, but we'll find out soon enough.