[ad_1]
John Stankey (Getty Images)
AT & T is not looking to sell DirecTV, said John Stankey in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
"DirecTV is an important part of what we will do in the future," said WarnerMedia's CEO. Stankey's comments at the WSJ come a week after the paper reported that AT & T was planning to divest itself of DirecTV, either by separating the company or selling it directly.
Stankey, who recently added the title of Chief Operating Officer of AT & T, in addition to his duties at WarnerMedia, said that AT & T was simply reviewing all of its options as part of a comprehensive review. of his wallet. "We are constantly reviewing the portfolio," he said. "It's the normal course of business and it's not specific to DirecTV." He explained that DirecTV would have an important role to play in HBO Max, the company's next streaming service, as well as in the advertising sector. Stankey said that DirecTV provides valuable customer data.
Read also: John Stankey promoted to director of operations at AT & T – will remain the CEO of WarnerMedia
Stankey also said that he had no plans to give up his role in WarnerMedia, despite his new title at AT & T. "I'm not trying to find my successor for the moment, "he said. According to an article in NBC News, Jeff Zucker, the head of CNN, who heads the company's press and sports activities, is the first internal candidate to succeed Stankey when he became president of AT & T.
Representatives of WarnerMedia and AT & T did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.
Earlier this month, Elliott Management Corporation, which announced that it now manages $ 3.2 billion of AT & T stock, wrote a long letter to the board of directors of the company. telecommunications and media giant, describing what Elliott called the "long-term underperformance" of AT & T. Elliott particularly criticized the takeover in 2014 by the satellite TV group DirecTV, of its provider of satellite television, and claimed that AT & T had acquired a declining asset. "The pay-TV ecosystem is under immense pressure since the conclusion of the agreement," reads the letter. "Unfortunately, it became clear that AT & T had acquired DirecTV at the absolute top of the linear TV market."
Read also: AT & T will explore a sale of DirecTV (Report)
On September 13, a group of AT & T investors filed a class action suit against AT & T, accusing executives of creating thousands of customer accounts for its DirecTV Now streaming service, and of publishing statements misleading on the health of the streaming product. In a statement, AT & T said it "plans to fight these unfounded complaints in court."
The poor performance of DirecTV Now (now called AT & T Now) was cited in Elliott's September 9 letter. Elliott has highlighted his subscriber losses over the past three quarters. The streaming service had 1.9 million users in the third quarter of 2018, but it is now 1.3 million euros in the second quarter of 2019.
[ad_2]
Source link