DIRECTV And AT&T Receive Final Approval To Merge

DIRECTV and AT&T received final approval by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to merge. The proposed deal is worth $48.5 billion.

The FCC voted on Thursday, approving the merger with a few conditions. Three out of the five FCC commissioners voted in favor of the DIRECTV and AT&T merger, according to a report by Reuters.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department gave the merger approval, when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler released the details of his proposal to endorse the deal with certain conditions.

The conditions cover various aspects of the business, including AT&T’s treatment of Internet video providers and Internet services for middle-class and low-income Americans. For the first time, the FCC plans to set up an independent monitor to make sure AT&T complies with conditions.

DIRECTV is the largest satellite-TV provider, whereas, AT&T is the second-largest wireless carrier.

This huge merger was initially announced in May 2014. It will give DIRECTV a broadband product and some diversity for AT&T, with new growth potential, exceeding their wireless service.

The Street reports DIRECTV is a digital television entertainment company that engages in the direct-to-home (DTH) business in Latin America and the United States. The company acquires, promotes, sells, and distributes digital entertainment programming through satellite to residential and commercial subscribers.

DIRECTV’s (NASDAQ: DTV) latest stock activity is evaluated as follows on The Street‘s website.

“The average volume for DIRECTV has been 3.4 million shares per day over the past 30 days. DIRECTV has a market cap of $47.1 billion and is part of the services sector and media industry. The stock has a beta of 1.04 and a short float of 2.5 percent with 2.48 days to cover. Shares are up 7.5 percent year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.”

Investor’s Business Daily covered AT&T (NYSE:T) activity on the stock market, reporting the stock going up 1.5 percent in after-hours trading late Thursday.

The Washington Post cited a statement by AT&T.

“We are pleased that an order to approve our DIRECTV transaction with certain conditions is circulating at the FCC. We hope the order will be approved by the Commission quickly and we expect to close shortly thereafter.”

The mega deal would give AT&T access to DIRECTV’s profitable television programming, like its NFL Sunday Ticket, which carries a select broadcast of certain professional football games.

AT&T hopes to earn additional money by bundling the DIRECTV content with phone and Internet service.

The move would help it in competing against other content distributors such as Comcast, which also controls a considerable stake in programming through NBCUniversal.

[Featured image via Andrew Burton/Getty Images]