Dish Network gives a nice surprise for the Holidays

**Don Landis** · 11-13-2009 05:39 PM

Surprise!

Dish Network announces a surprise Dividend of $2 a share this week.

Ex Dividend date is Nov 18th and the pay out is December 2.

Thank you, Dish Network.

**MikeinBaja** · 11-13-2009 08:25 PM

Nice for investors - sort of rubs a little salt into the wounds of the folks they just laid off though.

Timing sorta sucked.

**Slamminc11** · 11-13-2009 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by MikeinBaja

Nice for investors - sort of rubs a little salt into the wounds of the folks they just laid off though.

Timing sorta sucked.

well, depending on how long they had been with Dish, they received profit sharing shares of stock for at least the last few years, so they will get paid on those shares

**riffjim4069** · 11-13-2009 09:57 PM

How 'bout a Holiday Gift for subscribers...real HD and not that TurboHD-Lite stuff

.

**mike123abc** · 11-14-2009 07:06 AM

It is an interesting move. I wonder if they are trying to get it in before the end of the year to avoid a possible tax increase next year. The dividend tax rate is 15% (max) until 2011 but maybe they do not want to take chances.

This is nearly a billion dollars (447 million shares).

It also makes me think that they think TiVo suit will wrap up soon and they do not need the cash on hand.

**Don Landis** · 11-14-2009 09:02 AM

Yes, Mike, it is interesting. Dish as well as DTV doesn't normally distribute earnings in dividends.
The last time Dish gave out a cash Dividend was on Dec 6, 2004 ( $.90 a share).

I've always felt the Tivo mess was never going to really impact Dish anyway. If the impact of the dividend raises the value of the stock thru a rush to buy, it could be of even better benefit to Charlie and company in a TIVO buy out. Consider a run up of the stock to $35 a share impact on a TIVO for DISH stock plus cash buy out.

**RVD420** · 11-14-2009 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Don Landis

it could be of even better benefit to Charlie and company in a TIVO buy out.

Charlie can't buy Tivo out.

There is a poison pill provision that makes it cost prohibitive to buy Tivo out.

**jacmyoung** · 11-14-2009 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by RVD420

Charlie can't buy Tivo out.

There is a poison pill provision that makes it cost prohibitive to buy Tivo out.

If this is any indication that Charlie is confident that he will win the appeal, then TiVo's stock value may tank if the appeals court overturns the contempt ruling.

Based on the PTO documents, there is clear evidence that TiVo had misled Judge Folsom when they said the software claims had nothing to do with start code detection and indexing. As a result Judge Folsom handed TiVo the contempt win.

But misleading the court is a misconduct that can result in sanctions. Charlie now has clear evidence at hand to pursue misconduct charges after the appeals court ruling, no matter which way the ruling will be. Charlie's charges against TiVo will make TiVo undesirable to any other potential buyers, while TiVo's value tanks.

Of course the above is speculation, but nevertheless a possible way to overcome that "poison pill".

**dangue** · 11-14-2009 04:51 PM

As a shareholder, I appreciate the dividend. But, at the same time, if this money was originally earmarked for the Tivo settlement, this smacks of overconfidence. Surprisingly, the stock price hasn't really jumped on the news so the dividend is at just under 10% right now. It might be worth buying more, hmmm...

**jacmyoung** · 11-14-2009 06:50 PM

DISH is up by nearly 10% since the quarterly conference, while NASDAQ is up 3%. In fact if you go back a few days start from when DirecTV had their quarterly, DISH is up about 20% while NASDAQ is flat.

How do you measure how much the stock should jump on the news? I am not sure if the current DISH value is high or low, just asking how much a jump should be considered a good jump on the news.