AT&T Gets Bids More Than $15 Billion For DirecTV : Report

(RTTNews) - AT&T Inc. (T) received bids for its DirecTV unit valuing the satellite-TV service at more than $15 billion including debt, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The satellite TV business has been losing subscribers amid a worldwide shifting to cheaper online streaming services like Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc's Prime service. AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015 for $49 billion.

According to the report, the top bidders include Churchill Capital Corp. IV, a company run by former banker Michael Klein, and private-equity firm TPG. Apollo Global Management submitted a bid valuing the business at less than $15 billion.

The report also said the auction is in a late stage. A deal could be reached by early next year.

Earlier today, AT&T agreed to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Funimation Global Group, a joint venture of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment, for $1.175 billion.

Crunchyroll is a premier anime direct-to-consumer service within AT&T's WarnerMedia segment with more than 3 million SVOD subscribers. It serves 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries and territories offering AVOD, mobile games, manga, events merchandise and distribution.