AT&T deal opens era of competition with Mexico's Slim

By Christine Murray MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - For a generation, AT&T and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's telephone business stood side by side and grew to become giants of the industry north and south of the Rio Grande. Now, AT&T Inc's planned $48.5 billion purchase of U.S. satellite provider DirecTV is severing a connection with Slim that goes back to 1990, and turning them into competitors. AT&T said on Sunday it would sell its 8.4 percent stake in America Movil, Slim's main cash cow, and withdraw its board members from the company to avoid conflicts of interest with the Mexican's TV operations across Latin America. America Movil's shares fell more than 5 percent early on Monday, wiping over $3.5 billion off the company's value, although they recovered some ground in late morning trade and were down about 3 percent.

Continue reading...