AT&T’s planned acquisition of pan-American DTH operator DirecTV, which holds a 41.3% stake in Sky Mexico, was approved by Mexico’s telecoms regulator the IFT, the US telco said in a statement.
The US$48.5bn deal, which was previously cleared in…
AT&T’s planned acquisition of pan-American DTH operator DirecTV, which holds a 41.3% stake in Sky Mexico, was approved by Mexico’s telecoms regulator the IFT, the US telco said in a statement.
The US$48.5bn deal, which was previously cleared in Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago, is currently being reviewed by the US telecoms regulator the FCC and the US Department of Justice.
The US’ second-largest carrier has repeatedly said it expects the process to complete in the first half of 2015.
However, last month, the FCC stopped its informal 180-day shot-clock deadline to review the merger, first announced in May, as a number of media companies had refused to give third parties access to confidential programming agreements between them and the pay-TV operator.
If approved, the deal will enable AT&T to expand its broadband network to 15 million customer locations over the next four years, primarily in rural areas.
Today’s regulatory approval follows AT&T’s US$2.5bn acquisition of Mexico’s third-largest wireless operator Iusacell earlier this month, therefore consolidating the US’ telco position in the country.
A few days ago, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was quoted as saying that Nextel, a subsidiary of bankrupt NII Holdings, has Mexican assets that are interesting and attractive, while he played down rumours that his company might be among the potential bidders for America Movil’s local assets.
