{"id":89564,"date":"2020-10-15T04:50:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T01:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/doj-shoots-down-directv-and-dish-merger-again\/"},"modified":"2020-10-15T04:50:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T01:50:58","slug":"doj-shoots-down-directv-and-dish-merger-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/doj-shoots-down-directv-and-dish-merger-again\/","title":{"rendered":"#DOJ shoots down DirecTV and Dish merger again"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#DOJ shoots down DirecTV and Dish merger again<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n Charlie Ergen\u2019s dream of merging his Dish Network with AT&T\u2019s DirecTV has been squashed by the Department of Justice \u2014 yet again, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Regulators with the DOJ\u2019s antitrust division recently informed executives of AT&T that a marriage between DirecTV and Dish would likely have to wait until faster 5G wireless service is more widely available in rural markets, two sourc\u00ades close to the situation said. Regulators remain concerned that a union could lead to higher prices in areas lacking high-speed Internet access, including tribal lands, these sources said.<\/p>\n

The DOJ raised these same concerns two years ago and talks between the two companies fell apart. This time, AT&T is moving forward with an auction of DirecTV \u2014 just without Dish, sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA merger would be difficult,\u201d a source with direct knowledge of AT&T\u2019s talks with the DOJ told The Post.<\/p>\n

The regulator could always change its mind but likely won\u2019t as it delivered its assessment after having closely studied the broadband market while reviewing T-Mobile\u2019s acquisition of Sprint last year, the source added.<\/p>\n

AT&T, meanwhile, doesn\u2019t want to wait around for a DOJ review only to be told no, especially after being forced to wait 20 months to close on its $85 billion merger with Time Warner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have no desire to get in a protracted antitrust review after last year,\u201d a second source explained.<\/p>\n

A merger could help the rival TV satellite operators shore up their finances as they hemorrhage subscribers. But as The Post reported on Oct. 6, AT&T is moving forward without Dish despite lowball offers from private equity firms that range at about $16 billion \u2014 far lower than the telecom giant\u2019s expectations for closer to $20 billion.<\/p>\n

While that\u2019s less than a third of the $49 billion that AT&T shelled out for \u00adDirecTV just five years ago, the satellite-TV company\u2019s prospects are only projected to worsen as consumers continue to ditch cable for streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+.<\/p>\n

Wall Street, of course, refuses to give up on a Dish\/DirecTV deal. Analyst Walter Piecyk of Lightshed Partners argued in an Oct. 8 research note, for example, that a merger would save the two companies an estimated $1.5 billion a year \u201cand perhaps even more\u201d by allowing them to push for better rates from programmers, among other cost reductions.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the DOJ\u2019s talks with AT&T say the companies would have a much easier go of it in a few years when 5G service is more widespread. That would allow them to argue that merging would better allow them to compete against the growing streaming threat \u2014 including in their rural markets.<\/p>\n

That might be just fine for Ergen, who made it clear that he\u2019s willing to wait when two months ago reiterating his long-held belief that a marriage of the two companies is \u201cinevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it one month from now or two years from now? I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said during an August conference call.<\/p>\n

AT&T and the DOJ declined to comment.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#DOJ shoots down DirecTV and Dish merger again” Charlie Ergen\u2019s dream of merging his Dish Network with AT&T\u2019s DirecTV has been squashed by the Department of Justice \u2014 yet again, The Post has learned. Regulators with the DOJ\u2019s antitrust division recently informed executives of AT&T that a marriage between DirecTV and Dish would likely have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/dish-directv.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[75696,5039,71391,74660,9967,70584],"class_list":["post-89564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-14-20","tag-att","tag-department-of-justice","tag-directv","tag-dish-network","tag-mergers-acquisitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}