DirecTV, Dish shares surge on ‘merger approach’
March 27, 2014
Shares of DirecTV and Dish Network surged on March 26th after a report on Bloomberg said Dish chairman Charlie Ergen has approached DirecTV chief Mike White about a possible merger.
According to Bloomberg, Ergen is encouraged by the pending Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, but White is less convinced that a deal could pass competition tests.
While Comcast and Time Warner Cable would be the joining of the No. 1 and No. 2 cable operators in the country, they do not directly compete with each other territorially. DirecTV, which has 20 million subscribers and Dish, with 14 million customers, each have national services that compete directly.