Dish taps market for $2.3bn
April 4, 2013
By Chris Forrester
Charlie Ergen’s pay-TV operation Dish (officially the ‘Network’ part of its brand was dropped a year ago) says it wants to raise $2.3 billion in fresh debt that it looks to use for general corporate activity and “which may include wireless and spectrum-related transactions”.
Only a month ago, Dish was talking about a similar move but then mentioned a much smaller amount.
Dish said it had priced a total of $1.1 billion in 5.125 per cent senior notes due 2020 and another $1.2 billion in 4.25 per cent senior notes due in 2018, which combined would deliver about $2.3 billion, less costs associated with the issues.
Dish has been an aggressive buyer of spectrum in the past and is sitting on about $3 billions-worth of wireless spectrum. It also bought the Blockbuster chain of video stores in 2011. Last September, it announced a satellite broadband service called DishNet, aiming at rural areas.