Running head: UNIT VII CASE STUDY 1

Unit VII Case Study

BBA 3826
Christopher Mckeen
Columbia Southern University
05, January.2020
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As for when I give a thought about any kind of negotiation that a company undergoes the

first thing that comes in my mind is my home phone, internet, and cell phone service provider,i.e

AT&T as they merge with my service provider company, DirecTV. At the time of the

announcement of AT&T about their merging it was considered as one of the jumps because

AT&T is one of the huge global telecommunication giants. In 2006 AT&T launched its service

of U-verse including its broadband, phone, internet, and television service. AT&T had around

4.3 million subscribers by the end of 2012, hence AT&T was looking for such a company who

could help to progress their services to broaden its contribution in the home pay for the television

services in the market. Eddy Hartenstein was the founder of DirecTV. It is an American service

provider founded in June 1994, California. DirecTV is a satellite-based TV service

provider and was acquired by AT&T at the value of $67 billion.

AT&T declared a deal to buy DirecTV in May 2014 which was already a delayed

endorsement from the Federal Communication Commission. In February 2016, John Stephens

CFO of AT&T specified that the DirecTV 's biggest subscriber funded as a national satellite

service provider and that it would assist when it came to making deals for the channels like

Disney that was expected to give outcomes in lower cost. However, AT&T 's purchasing of

DirecTV not only reduced major competitors' but also observed the company to acquire

important debt. The debt of AT&T increased from $82 billion in 2014 to $ 126 billion in 2015,

the former year DirecTV was finished. It was recommended that AT&T should have negotiated

better terms before acquiring DirecTV ‘s debt. As per Bode,(2019) “between the DirecTV deal

and the Time Warner acquisition, AT&T has saddled itself with a whopping $160 billion in debt

in just three years.” (Bode, 2019). One major issue that arises as to how to deal with the U-verse

that provided matter over the internet to the subscribers. Although AT&T denied the fact that
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they will shut down U-verse as soon as the merger is done. Such kind of field of study that

focuses on providing this kind of prescriptive decision is commonly called decision

analysis(Bazerman & Moore,2013) Many companies can enhance the effectiveness of their

decision-making process by utilizing one of the seven methodologies to make a better decision

AT&T was very enthusiastic about its merging process with DirecTV and they thought

that DirecTV could provide U-verse service to the present clients and give it as an option to a

new customer and if the service is liked and suited by the client's requirement. Throughout the

process of negotiation to cover service marketplaces it was very significant to have a BATNA. A

BATNA is considered one of the best substitutes for negotiation, and when recognized is an

essential ability for emerging greatest policies to take to the bargaining table. (Bazerman &

Moore, 2013). Most of the time BATNA is used in negotiation.. Worthy negotiation strategies

are significant for negotiating gatherings tso that they find out if they are losing or they are in a

win situation for both the parties. It offers a substitute if negotiations fall through. It

offers negotiating control

Conclusion

It was not the circumstance as far as AT&T was concerned because of increased rates, the

dissatisfaction of the clients and the loss of 235000 clients in the first quarter of 2017 after the

merger of DirecTV and AT&T. It is very secure to say that the idea of the acquisition of

DirecTV and AT&T was not very good as it fails to satisfy the customer. It did not fulfill

customer satisfaction. It is all because the business underperformed the broader pay-tv market

and failed to progress loyalty for AT&T and other offerings.

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References

 Bazerman, M. H., & Moore, D. A. (2013). Judgment in managerial decision making (8th

ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

 Bode, K. (2019). AT&T's Mega-Mergers Are Going Poorly, And You're Footing the Bill.

Retrieved from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjmdgb/atandts-mega-mergers-are-

going-poorly-and-youre-footing-the-bill