AT&T exploring Deal to sell off DIRECTV.

[rad]

Here’s a story saying the plan is to sell only 50%, AT&T Eyeing Sale Of Half Its DirecTV Stake: Report


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[Don in CT]

I’m next to a cemetery which is a dead end

I see what you did there.

 

[SamCdbs]

Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Verizon does not own Frontier. Remember that Wikipedia is unaudited. But what the article says is that Verizon's spun off some of its ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier, AKA what was "the phone company" in a particular place back in the day) into a spinco, which was then sold off to Frontier, which was a company that already owned many other phone companies.

Pretty much it went like this:

Everybody had one and only one "phone company". About 85% of these were owned by the original AT&T. The rest of the country had other companies, including as relevant here, the largest one GTE, and the second largest one Continental Telephone, or ConTel. And another one known as Citizens Utilities, which becomes part of our story later.

Government breaks up the original AT&T, into regional companies.

Two of these, NYNEX (NY and New England) and Bell Atlantic (mid-Atlantic states and DC) merged under the latter's name.

Meanwhile GTE bought ConTel. These companies were not regional, they owned ILECs all over the country, mostly, but not exclusively rural or formerly rural places.

Then Bell Atlantic buys GTE, forming Verizon.

Citizens Utilities changes its name to Frontier.

This meant that Verizon's ILEC business was made up of the old NYNEX and Bell Atlantic regions and random places in all the other states that used to be GTE or ConTel.

Verizon then sold off the old GTE or ConTel ILECs. First it sold off Hawaii, then Iowa, then northern New England each to different phone companies, and then they packaged up what was left, plus the old Bell ILEC in West Virginia, which were made into a spinco and then sold to Frontier. Leaving Verizon in the POTS business in VA, MD, PA, NY, NJ, DE, MA, and RI. And leaving Frontier with a huge footprint all over the country in POTS.

All four of the the companies that bought Verizon's ILECs have gone bankrupt. Frontier is currently still in bankruptcy.

 

[Juan]

Verizon does not own Frontier. Remember that Wikipedia is unaudited. But what the article says is that Verizon's spun off some of its ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier, AKA what was "the phone company" in a particular place back in the day) into a spinco, which was then sold off to Frontier, which was a company that already owned many other phone companies.

Pretty much it went like this:

Everybody had one and only one "phone company". About 85% of these were owned by the original AT&T. The rest of the country had other companies, including as relevant here, the largest one GTE, and the second largest one Continental Telephone, or ConTel. And another one known as Citizens Utilities, which becomes part of our story later.

Government breaks up the original AT&T, into regional companies.

Two of these, NYNEX (NY and New England) and Bell Atlantic (mid-Atlantic states and DC) merged under the latter's name.

Meanwhile GTE bought ConTel. These companies were not regional, they owned ILECs all over the country, mostly, but not exclusively rural or formerly rural places.

Then Bell Atlantic buys GTE, forming Verizon.

Citizens Utilities changes its name to Frontier.

This meant that Verizon's ILEC business was made up of the old NYNEX and Bell Atlantic regions and random places in all the other states that used to be GTE or ConTel.

Verizon then sold off the old GTE or ConTel ILECs. First it sold off Hawaii, then Iowa, then northern New England each to different phone companies, and then they packaged up what was left, plus the old Bell ILEC in West Virginia, which were made into a spinco and then sold to Frontier. Leaving Verizon in the POTS business in VA, MD, PA, NY, NJ, DE, MA, and RI. And leaving Frontier with a huge footprint all over the country in POTS.

All four of the the companies that bought Verizon's ILECs have gone bankrupt. Frontier is currently still in bankruptcy.

Verizon owns the pensions and negotiates the union contracts for the employees they gave to frontier...same with north point..its a complicated deal ...its very hard to explain without a team of corporate lawyers...i would never use wikipedia as a source...it was a corporate stock swap designed to be a very elaborate tax writeoff...

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[ncted]

Frontier Communications ILEC Holdings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

How much does Big Red still own? This shows ~60% owned "by institutions":

Symbol Lookup from Yahoo Finance

Search for ticker symbols for Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Indices and Futures on Yahoo! Finance.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Juan]

How much does Big Red still own? This shows ~60% owned "by institutions":

Symbol Lookup from Yahoo Finance

Search for ticker symbols for Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Indices and Futures on Yahoo! Finance.

finance.yahoo.com

I really dont know...but frontier didn't have a pension and that complicated matters..and once you are vested in a pension they cannot just kick you out

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[Juan]

How much does Big Red still own? This shows ~60% owned "by institutions":

Symbol Lookup from Yahoo Finance

Search for ticker symbols for Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Indices and Futures on Yahoo! Finance.

finance.yahoo.com

It might be more accurate to say the same institutions that own verizon stock..own frontier stock

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[ncted]

I really dont know...but frontier didn't have a pension and that complicated matters..and once you are vested in a pension they cannot just kick you out

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Yeah, the pension was part of the reason my father-in-law took the early retirement. Not that he was going to lose it, but he made out better with the early retirement bonus than working a few extra years.

 

[CSM]

According to CNBC if the sale happens it will be by the end of the year and AT&T a prefers a private equity firm to get it because AT&T doesn’t want to talk with Dish. However, the article said a private equity firm could sell it to Dish.

What if the private equity firm doesn’t sell to Dish then how would DTV under them?

AT&T not talking to Dish about DirecTV combo - CNBC (NYSE:T)

AT&T (T +0.1%) isn't talking to Dish Network (DISH +4.4%) about a potential combination with its DirecTV business, CNBC reports.

seekingalpha.com

 

[Bruce]

According to CNBC if the sale happens it will be by the end of the year and AT&T a prefers a private equity firm to get it because AT&T doesn’t want to talk with Dish. However, the article said a private equity firm could sell it to Dish.

What if the private equity firm doesn’t sell to Dish then how would DTV under them?

AT&T not talking to Dish about DirecTV combo - CNBC (NYSE:T)

AT&T (T +0.1%) isn't talking to Dish Network (DISH +4.4%) about a potential combination with its DirecTV business, CNBC reports.

seekingalpha.com

That would be a long process if they did sell to a private group then to Dish, each sale would take roughly a year to get government approval, after all that time, DirecTV could lose another 6-8 million subs at the rate they are losing now.

 

[Yespage]

According to CNBC if the sale happens it will be by the end of the year and AT&T a prefers a private equity firm to get it because AT&T doesn’t want to talk with Dish. However, the article said a private equity firm could sell it to Dish.

I don't blame them. The way Ergen handles business, he could end up owning AT&T and they wouldn't be quite sure how he did it.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

I have to ask why Dish would want DirecTV and what would they do with it? Lets say Dish is able to purchase DirecTV for a bargain basement price of $20B. Dish seems to be doing fine and making a healthy profit as we speak. Most of the things on DirecTV are redundant, already on the Dish network. Just what would you get for your $20 billion dollars???

You would get licenses for some orbital slots, that's worth a little. You would get a fleet of aging spacecraft with no spares to speak of. You would get a lot of customers, many who are pissed off from getting shafted by ATT. You would maybe get the old DirecTV fiber system around the country, which was the larges privately owned system of its kind, but who knows what ATT has done to that. You would get some mediocre streaming services, a bunch of uplink centers and satellite hardware, bla bla bla.

I cant see Dish buying DirecTV unless its for pennies on the dollar, Charlie Ergen is one of the cheapest SOBs that's ever walked this earth and he's not going to pay very much for any of the things I mentioned. He would basically have a duplicate direct to home satellite service with duplicate everything from hardware to programming. What would he gain from the purchase? Anyone???

According to CNBC if the sale happens it will be by the end of the year and AT&T a prefers a private equity firm to get it because AT&T doesn’t want to talk with Dish. However, the article said a private equity firm could sell it to Dish.

What if the private equity firm doesn’t sell to Dish then how would DTV under them?

AT&T not talking to Dish about DirecTV combo - CNBC (NYSE:T)

AT&T (T +0.1%) isn't talking to Dish Network (DISH +4.4%) about a potential combination with its DirecTV business, CNBC reports.

seekingalpha.com

 

[CSM]

I forgot if DTV‘s Satellites could work with Dish network and if DTV’s boxes could run Dish Network’s interface? Or vice versa? Or could.DTV’s satellites and boxes work with Orby? Also if the private equity sell DTV for parts what will happen to all of DTV’s current customers?

 

[Inclined Orbit]

I have not kept up with Dish but I don't believe they have any Ka satellites and that is what most of the DirecTV system is. I believe many of the DirecTV receivers would be compatible with Dish.

I forgot if DTV‘s Satellites could work with Dish network and if DTV’s boxes could run Dish Network’s interface? Or vice versa? Or could.DTV’s satellites and boxes work with Orby? Also if the private equity sell DTV for parts what will happen to all of DTV’s current customers?

 

[Jimbo]

ATT not talking to Dish ?
WHY ?????

Granted, Dish as much as people seem to think otherwise, would NOt be a good move for the Customers ... I doubt that Dish would want to deal with changing all the D* subs over to thier network, or taking over D*'s network ... It would take a Long time to make the switch regardless.
The two systems are not compatible .... IF anyone plans to keep D* afloat, they should do it without DISH.

 

[Jimbo]

I have to ask why Dish would want DirecTV and what would they do with it? Lets say Dish is able to purchase DirecTV for a bargain basement price of $20B. Dish seems to be doing fine and making a healthy profit as we speak. Most of the things on DirecTV are redundant, already on the Dish network. Just what would you get for your $20 billion dollars???

You would get licenses for some orbital slots, that's worth a little. You would get a fleet of aging spacecraft with no spares to speak of. You would get a lot of customers, many who are pissed off from getting shafted by ATT. You would maybe get the old DirecTV fiber system around the country, which was the larges privately owned system of its kind, but who knows what ATT has done to that. You would get some mediocre streaming services, a bunch of uplink centers and satellite hardware, bla bla bla.

I cant see Dish buying DirecTV unless its for pennies on the dollar, Charlie Ergen is one of the cheapest SOBs that's ever walked this earth and he's not going to pay very much for any of the things I mentioned. He would basically have a duplicate direct to home satellite service with duplicate everything from hardware to programming. What would he gain from the purchase? Anyone???

If they were to buy D*, it would be D*, Not ATT ... I'm sure ATT is keeping thier Streaming services, at least till they themselves end them.

Yes, I don't see what DISH would get out of D* either really .... other than the remaining subs, which another chunk would leave due to the change.

I don't believe the Genies would be compatible with DISH ...

 

[CSM]

If they were to buy D*, it would be D*, Not ATT ... I'm sure ATT is keeping thier Streaming services, at least till they themselves end them.

Yes, I don't see what DISH would get out of D* either really .... other than the remaining subs, which another chunk would leave due to the change.

I don't believe the Genies would be compatible with DISH ...

Can AT&T have AT&T TV without DTV because of DTV‘s customer base for channel negotiation rights?

 

[NYDutch]

Charlie may be sitting back and waiting for the scavenger hedge funds to take over DTV and parts it out for a quick return. That would likely bring Dish a lot of new customers with little effort and no equipment conversions needed. Orby would likely get some boost from it as well.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

I'm sure they go hand in hand. For the current price ATT is paying for content you need a certain number of subscribers. Loose the satellite subscribers, make ATT streaming stand alone with its feeble following and content prices will go up for ATT.

Can AT&T have AT&T TV without DTV because of DTV‘s customer base for channel negotiation rights?

 

[Bruce]

Charlie may be sitting back and waiting for the scavenger hedge funds to take over DTV and parts it out for a quick return. That would likely bring Dish a lot of new customers with little effort and no equipment conversions needed. Orby would likely get some boost from it as well.

What parts are you thinking of, aging Satellites that are only good for DirecTV, customers?

AT&T are going to keep all the good parts of their company, HBO, all the cable channels like TNT, CNN, etc, Warner Bros, DC, broadband and more then I could name.

The only good part of DirecTV is they still have a lot of subs ( but that number is getting less and less, same for all Traditional Providers ), if any company buys them and wants to keep it going they will have to invest in it pretty quick, but I do not see anyone doing that, if someone wants to spend $20 billion, how do they make the money back?