quality:correction, stylistic:tone, information:extraction, information:filtering
Recent developments (2013–present)

In late 2014, AT&T purchased Mexican cellular carrier Iusacell, and two months later, it purchased the Mexican wireless business of NII Holdings. AT&T merged the two companies to create AT&T Mexico.

In July 2015, AT&T purchased DirecTV for $48.5 billion. AT&T then announced plans to converge its existing U-verse home internet and IPTV brands with DirecTV, to create AT&T Entertainment.

On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced a deal to buy Time Warner for $108.7 billion in an effort to increase its media holdings. On November 20, 2017, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim filed a lawsuit for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division to block the merger with Time Warner, saying it "will harm competition, result in higher bills for consumers and less innovation." On June 12, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that the merger could go forward. The merger closed two days afterwards, with Time Warner becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. A day later, the company was renamed WarnerMedia.

Three months after completing the acquisition, AT&T reorganized into four main units: Communications, including consumer and business wireline telephony, AT&T Mobility, and consumer entertainment video services; WarnerMedia, including Turner cable television networks, Warner Bros. film and television production, and HBO; AT&T Latin America, consisting of wireless service in Mexico and video in Latin America and the Caribbean under the Vrio brand; and Advertising and Analytics, since renamed Xandr.

On July 13, 2017, it was reported that AT&T would introduce a cloud-based DVR streaming service. It hoped to create a unified platform across DirecTV and its DirecTV Now streaming service, with U-verse to be added shortly afterward. The service, named HBO Max, launched in May 2020.

On September 12, 2017, it was reported that AT&T planned to launch a new cable TV-like service for delivery over-the-top over its own or a competitor's broadband network sometime the following year.

On March 7, 2018, the company prepared to sell a minority stake of DirecTV Latin America through an IPO, creating a new holding company for those assets named Vrio Corp. However, on April 18, just a day before the public debut of Vrio, AT&T canceled the IPO due to market conditions.

As of 2019, AT&T is the world's largest telecommunications company. AT&T is also the largest provider of mobile telephone services and the largest provider of fixed telephone (landline) services in the United States.

In September 2019, activist investor Elliott Management revealed that it had purchased $3.2 billion of AT&T stock (a 1.2% equity interest), and had pushed for the company to divest assets to improve its share value.

On March 4, 2020, AT&T announced its intent to perform major cost-cutting moves, including cuts to capital investment, and plans to promote AT&T TV (which officially launched nationally on March 2) as its primary pay television service offering. AT&T stated it would still primarily promote DirecTV "where cable broadband is not prevalent", and as a specialty option.

On April 24, 2020, AT&T announced that effective July 1, 2020, company COO John Stankey would replace Randall L. Stephenson as CEO of AT&T. It was also acknowledged that AT&T's acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner had by this point resulted in a massive debt burden of $200 billion for the company.

As a result of planned cost cutting programs, the sale of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment was proposed, but ultimately abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic -related growth in the video gaming industry, as well as a positive reception to upcoming DC Comics, Lego Star Wars, and Harry Potter titles from fans and critics.

Crunchyroll was sold to Sony 's Funimation for US$1.175 billion in December 2020, with the acquisition closing in August 2021.

On February 25, 2021, AT&T announced that it would spin-off DirecTV, U-Verse TV, and DirecTV Stream into a separate entity, selling a 30% stake to TPG Capital (owners of Astound Broadband cable), while retaining a 70% stake in the new standalone company. The deal was closed on August 2, 2021.

On May 17, 2021, AT&T announced plans to relinquish its equity interest in WarnerMedia, and have it merge with Discovery, Inc. in a US$43 billion deal to establish a new media company.

Electronic Arts, which was a bidder in the proposed sale of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, purchased the mobile gaming studio Playdemic from WBIE for US$1.4 billion in June 2021.

In September 2021, Fox Corporation acquired TMZ from WarnerMedia in a deal worth about $50 million with TMZ being operated under the Fox Entertainment division.

On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced that they had agreed to sell Xandr (and AppNexus) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price. The deal was completed in June 2022.

On April 8, 2022, the spinoff of WarnerMedia and its subsequent merger with Discovery, Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery was completed. As a result of this merger, HBO Max and other video services were dropped from AT&T's unlimited plan offering.

AT&T was one of several clients of Snowflake Inc. that had data stolen in a 2024 breach. Phone and text logs from 1 May 2022 to 31 October 2022 of "nearly all" AT&T customers were exposed as part of the breach.