Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network is raising $2.5 billion in fresh debt. The cash will be placed into a special escrow account ready to be used for Dish’s proposed purchase of US cellular giant Sprint Nextel. Ergen said that week that he would only make a firm financing commitment when it was clear that it was teh last obstacle in keeping him from getting access to Sprint’s books.

If the Sprint purchase does not proceed then the DBS operator will redeem the senior notes associated with the debt.  Dish has already stated that it expects to raise about $9 billion in order to fund the purchase of Sprint.

Dish said that the proposed purchase had been discussed with a special committee set up by Sprint and that Dish was now waiting for a response.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, DTH/Satellite, Funding