Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network pay-TV platform suffered a major stock-market hit on May 6th and damaged by news of a thumping 462,000 net subscriber loss during its Q1 trading. Dish’s share price fell 19.4 per cent by the close of trading, and a 52-week ‘low’ and with shares actually trading at $19.57 (compared with $47.05 […]
Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar finished the year “with a thud” according to a report from Quilty Analytics. EchoStar has as a subsidiary a fast-growing business in Hughes Network Systems. But despite this benefit the end-of-year results were a disappointment. Hughes service revenues decline some 2 per cent and representing the first fall since EchoStar acquired Hughes […]
Charlie Ergen, speaking to analysts following his company’s results announcement, said that without a merger between DirecTV and his own DISH Network the risk is that transmissions from the tow pay-TV operators “will just melt away”. Ergen repeated his previous statements that a merger was inevitable. “The regulatory reasons to not allow [a merger] don’t […]
Michael Dugan, President & CEO at EchoStar, is retiring after 30 years of working with Charlie Ergen and the EchoStar/Dish family of businesses. He is being replaced by Hamid Akhavan. Dugan will remain on the board of directors and will serve as a strategic advisor to the company. Akhavan will take over at the end […]
At the moment, any merger plan between Dish Network and AT&T’s DirecTV is just behind the scenes talk. But it could happen, and if so, how would the pair start saving cash? The usual synergy promises will trim head-count and the marketing and advertising budgets would be trimmed. But what about those orbital assets? The […]
AT&T’s DirecTV and Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network have reportedly resumed talks regarding merging their DTH operations – and a deal could be close. The New York Post says it has learned that discussions are again taking place despite past anti-trust concerns that such discussions would never pass muster with the competition authorities. The Post says […]
US DTH operator Dish Network is to raise $4 billion (€3.45bn) in senior secured notes. The cash-raising is being conducted through its Dish DBS Corporation sister company and will be used to fund an inter-company loan to Dish Network in order to finance the potential purchase of wireless spectrum licences. The news comes on top […]
Charlie Ergen, speaking to analysts on the DISH Network post-results analysts call, again touched on the prospects for a merger between DirecTV and Ergen’s DISH, saying a combination was “inevitable”. While the question and prospects of a merger have been discussed for some time, Ergen told analysts that, as he had said before, “that those […]
EchoStar, a business owned by Charlie Ergen, has a crucial date on June 25th for a rocket and satellite launch. If the satellite is successfully put into orbit then Ergen will secure near-global rights to S-band licences. If it doesn’t work – and two previous attempts have failed – then Ergen’s permissions to use the […]
Charlie Ergen’s DTH operation Dish Network intends on raising $1.25 billion in fresh debt by means of new senior notes. The cash will be raised via Dish DBS Corp, a subsidiary company. Dish will use the cash to refund some existing debt and general corporate purposes. A week ago, Dish reported quarterly earnings of 99c/share […]