AT&T sells Mexican wireless to Televisa and Fintech Holdings for $2 billion after a $10 billion decade

AT&T▼−0.34% — AT&T, down 0.34 percent today agreed on October 13 to sell AT&T Mexico to Grupo Televisa, Mexico's biggest broadcaster, and Fintech Holdings, the investment firm of Mexican billionaire David Martínez, for $2 billion plus contingent payments↗ ¹. The two banks that priced the deal reached opposite verdicts, and both hold. Scotiabank calls the price a bargain that should lift Televisa's share of Mexico's fixed and wireless subscribers from 8 percent to roughly 19 percent ²⁴.

BNP Paribas puts the cash AT&T is giving up near $500 million a year ³. The gap between those readings is the signal: a mobile network pays for an owner with home broadband and television to bundle it with, and drags on an owner with neither.

Ten years and $10 billion bought second place

AT&T entered Mexico in 2014 through the Iusacell and Nextel Mexico acquisitions and has since put more than $10 billion into the country across deals, a national 4G build and legacy network shutdowns ³. The result is a second-place carrier stuck behind Telcel, Carlos Slim's América Móvil operator, which holds roughly six in ten Mexican mobile lines ²³.

The business changing hands is shrinking, not steady: 23.4 million subscribers at mid-2026, down from 24.7 million at the end of 2025 ². Telefónica, the Spanish operator, quit more cheaply this year, selling Movistar Mexico for $450 million↗ ³. The unit earned 1.4 billion pesos of operating income on 85.4 billion pesos of 2025 revenue, roughly a 1.6 percent margin ⁴.

The money now chases US fiber

Chairman John Stankey named the chain himself: the AI future, he says, "will run on converged networks with dense fiber assets" ¹. A week before the sale, AT&T merged its two fiber joint ventures into one wholesale company↗, half owned by BlackRock's·+0.99% — BlackRock, up 0.99 percent as of its last quote Global Infrastructure Partners and Canada's CPP Investments, behind a buildout of more than 60 million US fiber locations by the end of 2030, the connections AI traffic runs on ⁵⁶.

The contested ground is the home market, not Mexico. On October 8 SpaceX▼−2.44% — SpaceX, down 2.44 percent today agreed to buy Grain Management's nationwide low-band spectrum for a reported $8 billion, pending federal approval↗, a step toward making Starlink a major US mobile carrier ⁷⁸. The next day AT&T, Verizon▲+0.79% — Verizon, up 0.79 percent today and T-Mobile lost more than $50 billion of combined market value ⁸. AT&T's answer is convergence, selling fiber and wireless together, and that answer costs capital.

The first test lands on October 21

AT&T reports third-quarter results on October 21, when its quarterly SEC filing will reclassify Mexico as held-for-sale, an asset classed as awaiting a buyer ¹². Holders need the simplification to arrive as cash: BNP puts the net cost of the exit near $400 million a year once interest savings count ³. The 2027 guidance this threatens promises at least $19 billion of free cash flow ³.

AT&T generated $19.4 billion of free cash flow in 2025↗, so the guide largely asks the company to hold last year's level while shedding cash ⁹. In Mexico the gap falls to Televisa, whose izzi broadband and Sky television finally get a mobile network to bundle, with Fintech Holdings owning the other half pending Mexican regulatory approval toward a first-quarter 2027 close ¹⁴.

Televisa gets the margin, AT&T the question

The unit's 18,000 employees were told operations continue unchanged until then ². Televisa and Fintech get the bundling margin. AT&T holders get the cash question, and AT&T took the harder job, proving that focus converts to cash.