AT&T sells DirecTV as it bows out of the entertainment business

AT&T is lowering curtain on its foray into the entertainment business, selling its majority stake in satellite TV provider DirecTV to private equity firm TPG for $7.6 billion.

The deal, announced Monday, comes more than a decade after AT&T agreed to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion , an acquisition that was designed to give the telecom giant a larger base of video subscribers and help it compete against rivals.

But since then, the subscription TV business has been hit by defections from "cord cutters," or customers who have canceled their cable or satellite TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services such as Netflix. In 2021, following the loss of millions of customers, AT&T sold a 30% stake of the business to TPG in a deal valued at $16.2 billion.

"This sale allows AT&T to continue to focus on being the leading wireless 5G and fiber connectivity company in America," AT&T said in a statement on Monday.

AT&T's sale of its remaining 70% stake in DirecTV is expected to close in the second half of 2025. Both parties have the right to walk away from the deal if it hasn't closed by Oct. 31, 2025, although the seller can push that deadline back under certain conditions, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin said in a report.

Separately, DirecTV said it is acquiring satellite-TV provider Dish from EchoStar, a deal that also includes Sling TV, for $1 plus the assumption of roughly $9.8 billion in debt.

Shares of AT&T rose slightly before the market opened on Monday.