Newspaper wrap-up: AT&T to pursue DirecTV?

Posted Oct 18th 2007 9:15AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, AT and T (T), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

MAJOR PAPERS:

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that the SEC is investigating Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) CEO Angelo Mozilo for selling $130.6M in stock in the first half of the year.
While all eyes have been on a possible AT&T (NYSE: T) play for EchoStar Communications (NASDAQ: DISH), the Wall Street Journal's "Deal Journal" says AT&T may go after DirecTV Group (NYSE: DTV), and may be more likely, and could be a better deal for AT&T.

OTHER PAPERS:

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has decided to sharply limit the use of GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK) once-popular drug for Type 2 diabetes, Avandia. The decision is likely to further reduce revenue from Avandia, whose sales have dropped in the U.S. by an estimated 60% in the last five months, reported the New York Times.
Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) said it would pay $172M for a majority stake in Indian metal castings maker Sigma Electricals and its affiliated companies, reported the Business Standard.
A molecular diagnostic test for HPV developed by Digene, which is now part of Qiagen (NASDAQ: QGEN), has been found to be almost 40% more accurate than traditional cytology in identifying women with advanced cervical disease, according to a report published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Tags: business standard, BusinessStandard, cfc, countrywide, deal journal, DealJournal, dish, echostar, mozilo, new england journal of medicine, NewEnglandJournalOfMedicine, newspaper, ny times, NyTimes, paper, periodical, wall street journal, WallStreetJournal, wsj

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-18-2007 @ 11:56AM

Shelly said...

An AT&T-DirecTV deal could happen, and it seems to be more of a possibility than one with AT&T-Echostar. Actually, the one place that I've seen so far covering this story that goes beyond the super general rumor level is NewsVisual, which visually mapped the corporate relationships between ATT and DTV: http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/att-and-directv.html (there actually are a decent number of strong ties here- worth checking out). If anything, this would give AT&T some additional substance behind an offer.

10-18-2007 @ 7:47PM

Joe said...

Why would AT&T want to invest in a technology that it intends to replace with fiber optics? I understand that metropolitan Atlanta is going to have fiber optics lines installed shortly that will deliver a superior digital television signal to any household that wants it.