If successful, the merger would create a combined satellite streaming business with around 20 million US subscribers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
DirecTV has reached an agreement to acquire Dish, alongside its parent company EchoStar’s wider satellite TV business, for a single dollar — and assume $9.75 billion of Dish’s debt. Private equity firm TPG has arranged a two-step agreement to buy the remaining 70 percent of DirecTV that it didn’t already own from AT&T for a reported $7.6 billion and merge all of that with Dish.
The deal announced Monday would combine Dish’s roughly 8.1 million subscribers with the 11 million US subscribers under DirecTV, The New York Times reports. The agreement would see AT&T exit as a part-owner of DirecTV, while EchoStar separates from its TV business to pursue the wonders of Open RAN 5G once the deal is closed in 2025.
The DirecTV and Dish merger is…
