AT&T and the Argentine holding company Grupo Werthein have officially announced this last Wednesday, July 21st that the Argentine company has run an agreement to acquire AT&T’s Vrio Corp’s business unit. Both companies expect the transaction to close in early 2022. The announcement came after AT&T sold a part of DirecTV’s operations in the US to the TPG Capital investment fund.
According to the terms of the agreement, Grupo Werthein has agreed to acquire, subject to customary closing conditions, 100% of the equity in Vrio, which, as of June 30th, 2021, gathers 10.3 million subscribers across 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including OTT subscribers. Likewise, the transaction will not include Vrio’s broadband operations in Colombia and AT & T’s participation in Sky Mexico.
Vrio’s offer includes live and on demand video services via DirecTV Latin America, Sky Brasil and DirecTV GO. The company’s entertainment offerings include sporting events, international content and exclusive programming. Vrio offers services in Brazil through the Sky brand; and in Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay through the DirecTV brand. DirecTV GO is an OTT subscription service that offers online access to several live and on demand programming, and is available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
In addition, from Vrio they confirmed that the company’s broadband operations, together with other investments, including ‘Torneos y Competencias’ in Argentina and Win Sports in Colombia, will be transferred to Grupo Werthein when the transaction closes. Apart from that, once the transaction is completed, Vrio’s subscribers will continue to have access to premium content and can expect the same services, channels lineup, content offerings and customer care experience.
‘Our vision of the future is to maximize these leading entertainment brands in Latin America, maintaining their leadership and increasing their value proposition by investing in technology and content aligned with the viewing habits of each one of the subscribers, including the next generation of consumers’, said Dario Werthein, Shareholder at Grupo Werthein.
‘This transaction will further allow us to sharpen our focus on investing in connectivity for customers’, reported Lori Lee, CEO at AT&T Latin America. ‘We remain committed to Latin America through our wireless business in Mexico and services for multinational corporations operating in the region’, the executive added.