By Reshmi Basu and Michelle F. Davis, Bloomberg News The Tribune Content Agency
DirecTV intends to terminate its planned acquisition of Dish Network Corp. in 10 days if bondholders don't agree to a debt exchange.
"A successful exchange was a condition for acquiring the Dish video business," a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "Given the outcome of the EchoStar exchange, DirecTV will have no choice but to terminate the acquisition of Dish by midnight on Nov. 22."
A representative for Dish, which was acquired by EchoStar Corp. in the past year, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
A group of Dish bondholders on Monday rejected an improved offer put forward by DirecTV at the end of October. The revised terms lowered the minimum loss on $8.9 billion of bonds by $70 million to $1.5 billion, and the acceptance deadline was extended to 5 p.m. New York time Tuesday.
DirecTV has no plans to sweeten the debt-exchange proposal again, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Negotiations will now need to take place between EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen and Dish creditors, they added.
DirecTV, owned by AT&T Inc. and joint venture partner TPG Inc., agreed with Dish in September to combine in a deal that would create the biggest pay-TV provider in the U.S., with about 18 million subscribers. Under the terms of the original transaction, DirecTV would acquire Dish TV and Sling TV from Dish for a nominal consideration of $1 plus the assumption of about $9.75 billion of debt, according to earlier statements.
The deal was contingent, though, upon Dish's bondholders agreeing to take a haircut on the principal amount of the company's debt.
TPG plans to buy out AT&T's stake in DirecTV in a separate transaction regardless of the outcome of the Dish merger.
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