AT&T says not buying E* for 13 months

kstuart

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
Nov 5, 2006
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Northern California
I'm surprised to not see this here... it was mentioned in a TV report on E* stock ... evidently, AT&T announced something to the effect that "if we were to buy [E*] it wouldn't be until the end of 2008".
 
Correct as Dish and AT&T are bidding on the same spectrum.

Lets just hope Charlie gets his head out of his butt and gets some buckets to empty out his leaking ship before it sinks.
 
I totally agree Scott. How can a man that has built this business, act like he just does not care at this time.
 
I wonder, with the plan to split the company, if Charlie isn't more interested in the hardware/satellite fleet division rather than the DBS programming portion of the company. We obviously don't know what's going on with that part of the operation since very little of that outside of the Dish branded receivers is apparent to the customer, or even retailers and installers. If I were in Charlie's shoes, I'd probably be investing my energy in the part of the company that I plan to keep, not the part that I'm looking to sell off. We as customers don't like it, but most of us don't get any vote in what happens with the company either.

It almost makes sense, given the push in marketing to play up the technology (C-Net reviews, etc.) rather than the programming, such as it is.
 
Yeah I don't think it will happen due to AT&T is going to be spending billions on getting their own TV Service. But you never know but with all the things that AT&T doing lately about getting their TV Service up and running I think Dish is last thing on their minds.
 
Charlie does whatever Charlie enjoys doing. He's shown a great knack of knowing where to take his company. No arguing with his success.

Perhaps right now he's just drifting a bit, or plotting his next move. Lining things up for where he wants to take his spin-off company. He's no fool, but maybe he's not as focused at the moment.

Heck, he's a multi-billionaire. If he wants to drift for a few months, whose going to stop him?
 
I didn't read the thing that way... I took away from it they weren't going to decide on which satellite carrier to continue the partnership with. They'll wait till 2H 2008 to decide if they drop either the Dish or Directv relationship.

I think the possibility of buying is a separate issue being looked at by different groups.
 
I didn't read the thing that way... I took away from it they weren't going to decide on which satellite carrier to continue the partnership with. They'll wait till 2H 2008 to decide if they drop either the Dish or Directv relationship.

I think the possibility of buying is a separate issue being looked at by different groups.



I thought that too till I read that they have already decided to stop selling D8 *

AT&T to stop selling DirecTV service in 1st qtr | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters


I am not sure how to read those two press releases on the same day.
 
Maybe he is just going to wait for Sirius and XM to merge and then try the merger stuff again using the same grounds they used to get the govt to go along.
Who knows? If he plays his cards right, the hardware division of E* as a separate company could conceivably sell receivers to both DBS providers. It would make a merger that much easier... Isn't speculation fun?
 
Lets just hope Charlie gets his head out of his butt and gets some buckets to empty out his leaking ship before it sinks.

What everyone in the Forums want is E* to add more channels.

What has prevented that is Launch Failures - something that is really impossible to do anything about.

I wonder if people want a new E* advertising campaign:

Dish Network - the company that is patiently waiting for its satellites to actually be launched.
 
What everyone in the Forums want is E* to add more channels.

What has prevented that is Launch Failures - something that is really impossible to do anything about.

I wonder if people want a new E* advertising campaign:


Dish has said nothing about what is keeping them from adding channels. Which comes to the point I have been on all day. Keep your subs informed!!!!
 
What about all the higher ups selling their stock? My nephew states they do this every year at this time, but in the Denver post there was an article about them selling stock for lots of money. Maybe Att is going to buy them
 
If he plays his cards right, the hardware division of E* as a separate company could conceivably sell receivers to both DBS providers.
It's a nice thought and unless Charlie has already worked out this plan with D*, it will never happen. Echostar is, and always will be, regardless of what some "paperwork" states, part of Dish Network. D* won't support their only competitor. Ask Delphi how their plans to supply parts to Ford and Chrysler worked out....
 
Yeah I don't think it will happen due to AT&T is going to be spending billions on getting their own TV Service. But you never know but with all the things that AT&T doing lately about getting their TV Service up and running I think Dish is last thing on their minds.

AT&T wants the ability to offer video to every possibly person and their U-verse won't be able to do that, so they would like an alternative where U-verse is unavailable.

I believe right now you must live within 3000 ft. of the video boxes they're installing in neighborhoods (called VRADs) to get U-Verse, and they're not going to spend the money to put those very expensive boxes in rural areas, and run fiber to them, where only a couple customers will be served. So they need an alternative.

I still think this might happen at some point.
 
What about all the higher ups selling their stock? My nephew states they do this every year at this time, but in the Denver post there was an article about them selling stock for lots of money. Maybe Att is going to buy them
You usually sell your stock when you feel that it has reached a high point, will soon go down in price or you need the money. It could be that some higher ups exercised a stock option and sold some stock to pay for the transaction. You usually get a better price for your stock in a buyout than selling it on the market.
 
Maybe he is just going to wait for Sirius and XM to merge and then try the merger stuff again using the same grounds they used to get the govt to go along.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of the Sirius XM merger is that both services are losing money and have no immedaite prospects for profitability. Both DBS providers are profitable at this point.
 
It's a nice thought and unless Charlie has already worked out this plan with D*, it will never happen. Echostar is, and always will be, regardless of what some "paperwork" states, part of Dish Network. D* won't support their only competitor. Ask Delphi how their plans to supply parts to Ford and Chrysler worked out....
Like I said, speculation is fun, but is rarely realistic. Though, if DISH were to be sold off, whether to AT&T or another entity, I guess that Charlie's competitors would be companies more like Motorola and Cisco/SA rather than D*.
 

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