when i saw this headline, i immediately fired off an e-mail to the producers i said really, the randall stevenson era at at&t is wracked by deals that apparently ran up debt now you're selling directv at less than half what you paid for it comment on the deal and comment on the company and the former management team. >> yeah. you've got to look back to the era that you're talking about. so you had the two majors. you have verizon, you have at&t. then you had john ledger who turned the whole industry on its head am i right there so they were forced to compete they were forced to try to gobble up, create value where they thought they could. they were trying to chase where the puck was going to be, not where the puck was so i don't fault them for doing that, because if those deals turned into something, you would have posed that question to me, hey steve, all these deals turned out great so it's always six, half dozen of the other in this one it's hindsight's 2020 yes, you are correct so it didn't so now you're looking at at&t that has basically been flat lining at around $30 you catch a yield of ju

announced and even then we had a lot of questions about the rationale behind it despite what were randall stevenson'sf former at&t to why they did the deal. certainly the free cash flow characteristics of the business will help at&t maintain its dividend but it is a business that has deteriorated over time and the subscribers is unabated and come down dramatically. when we talked to new ceo after the last earning's report not that long ago, i did press him on directv and on whether it was a core asset he wouldn't come out exactly and say it wasn't, but take a listen to what he did say to sort of get a sense for their thinking >> what i clearly believe is software based technology platforms are really important for our business moving forward. and they're able to deliver the kind of product that a customer likes. and that's where we're focused on our investment and what we're going to do moving forward >> that is not directv what he's talking about right there. there is this prospect could you bring directv and dish together because the man who controls dish is focused on trying to roll out a nationwi