SBC Communications is in negotiations to buy satellite television operator DirecTV.
Talks between SBC and General Motors, DirecTV’s parent, are still in the early stages, but the deal could value DirecTV at $10 billion.
San Antonio-based SBC is the second largest telecommunications company in the country. For the full-year 2002, SBC posted revenues of $43.1 billion. The company is a dominant local telephone service operator in the West, Southwest and Midwest.
SBC has diversified its offerings by acquiring national Internet service provider Prodigy and launching an Internet service provider with Internet giant Yahoo! SBC also owns a 60-percent stake in wireless firm Cingular.
A deal to acquire DirecTV would be one way for the company to compete with rivals such as Comcast that are packaging cable television and high-speed access services and are beginning to offer local phone services.
With approximately 11 million subscribers, DirecTV has been an acquisition target for the past three years. A unit of GM’s Hughes Electronics, the company recently wrote off investments in Latin America and in a consumer broadband service, but was able to post strong fourth quarter 2002 results thanks to a $600 million break-up fee EchoStar paid out.
News Corp., which owns The Post, has expressed interest in acquiring DirectTV. News Corp. is also a potential acquirer of EchoStar, which operates The Dish Network.
Representatives from Hughes Electronics, News Corp. and SBC declined comment.