ATT To Buy DirecTV For $49B, Creating Pay-TV Giant

AT&T Inc. agreed to acquire DirecTV for $49 billion, a deal that would make it a major player in pay television and increase its clout with media companies at a time when video consumption is moving online, report WSJ.

The agreement, which the companies' boards approved on Sunday, comes just three months after Comcast Corp.'s $45 billion agreement to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC.

The deals show how the biggest companies in television and telecommunications are bulking up to face a changing media landscape. Growth is slowing in some markets, like pay TV and wireless subscriptions, and is exploding in others, like streaming video. The companies are betting that bigger scale will give them the resources to invest in new capabilities and the leverage to hammer out commercial arrangements in the media world.

The combination would create a company with 26 million pay-TV subscribers in the U.S. That is second only to Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which would have about 30 million combined subscribers if regulators approve their deal and pending divestitures are completed.

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