AT&T is struggling to find potential buyers for Vrio Corp, the holding company that controls DirecTV Latin America and Sky Brazil, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the article, AT&T has been trying to offload the business for at least four months, without success. Vrio is part of a growing list of assets that have been put up for sale by new CEO John Stankey, alongside the US arm of DirecTV, digital advertising unit Xandr and anime streaming service Crunchyroll.
DirecTV offers pay-TV services through subsidiaries and affiliated companies in the US and Latin America (including Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador), and also owns 4G wireless network operating licences in a number of LatAm countries including Brazil (via Sky Brazil), Colombia, Peru and Argentina. Following the July 2015 takeover of DirecTV, speculation was rife that AT&T intended to use the acquisition of DirecTV as a platform to explore mobile opportunities in key markets such as Brazil and Colombia, although such plans failed to materialise. The company currently offers TD-LTE connectivity in Brazil and Colombia.
Back in April 2018 AT&T launched an initial public offering (IPO) for shares in Vrio Corp only to cancel the process less than two weeks later, due to ‘market conditions’.