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• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- AT&T Inc. on Sunday agreed to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV for $48.5 billion, or $95 per share, a deal both companies described as transformational as they seek to take on cable companies and online video providers, delivering content to multiple screens --on living room TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile phones.
• With 5.7 million U-verse TV customers and 20.3 million DirecTV customers in the U.S., the combined AT&T-DirecTV would serve 26 million. That would make it the second-largest pay TV operator behind a combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable, which would serve 30 million under a $45 billion merger proposed in February.
• "What it does is it gives us the pieces to fulfill a vision we've had for a couple of years - the ability to take premium content and deliver it across multiple points: your smartphone, tablet, television or laptop," AT&T's Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said on a conference call with journalists Sunday.
• The companies are aiming to eke out $1.6 billion in annual cost savings in an increasingly expensive and maturing pay TV business. The extra cash flow gives AT&T more ability to invest in its landline and mobile networks for broader reach and faster speeds in a market where it risks falling behind a bulked up Comcast-Time Warner Cable.
• The companies promised consumer benefits like more economical bundles that tie mobile phone, pay TV and Internet service together on a single bill.
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• A hologram of Michael Jackson made its debut Sunday at the Billboard Music Awards, mirroring the late King of Pop's signature slick dance moves as some members of the audience became emotional.
• The hologram performed "Slave to the Rhythm," a song from Jackson's new posthumous album "Xscape," along with a plethora of background dancers, beaming lights and fire blasts.
• It was easily the biggest moment at the awards show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

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