AT&T to Spin Off Long-Suffering DirecTV in Deal With TPG (3)

AT&T Inc. will offload its DirecTV operations in a deal with private equity firm TPG that values the business at about $16 billion, a fraction of what the telecom giant paid for the satellite-TV company in 2015.

The move caps years of AT&T deliberating over what to do with DirecTV, a pay-television pioneer that had increasingly become a burden as it hemorrhaged customers.

As part of the agreement, a joint venture with TPG will run DirecTV and AT&T’s other pay-TV operations, the companies said Thursday. AT&T will get $7.6 billion in cash from the transaction, with the new DirecTV taking ...