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AT&T Inc is exploring options for its Digital Life home security business, including selling it, as it seeks to pay down debt following its planned US$85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc, Reuters reports, quoting people familiar with the matter.
The divestiture would mark a reversal for AT&T, which entered the U.S. home security market with the introduction of Digital Life in 2013. The service offers customers sensors and cameras so they can monitor their homes and pets on their phones.
Digital Life accounted for a tiny fraction of AT&T’s US$163.8 billion in revenue in 2016. It is estimated to have between 400,000 and 500,000 customers and may fetch close to US$1 billion in a sale, the sources said.
While this would do little to reduce AT&T’s debt, which totaled US$143.7 billion on June 30, the sale could be a prelude to more divestitures, the sources added.
AT&T has said it expects the Time Warner acquisition to close by the end of the year. The deal is currently under antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice.