(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc. had agreed to sell its majority stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG Inc. for $7.6 billion in cash.
The payments include $1.7 billion in pre-tax quarterly distributions in the second half of this year and $5.4 billion in after-tax distributions in 2025, AT&T said in a filing Monday. Final payments of $500 million will be made in 2029.
AT&T is selling its stake in DirecTV as the satellite television company is holding its own advanced talks to merge with rival Dish in a deal that would create the largest US pay-TV provider. DirecTV is in talks to control the combined entity, which will be closely held and serve almost 20 million subscribers, Bloomberg reported last week, citing people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
AT&T and TPG are joint owners of DirecTV, which was founded in 1994 by Hughes Electronics and has about 11 million customers. Dish, started in 1980 by billionaire Charlie Ergen, is part of his EchoStar Corp. and has about eight million subscribers.
AT&T shares were up 1% in premarket trading on Monday.
(Updates with deal talks in third paragraph and share move in fourth)
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