Dish Exec Sells Stock

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nice payday for Michael Dugan - $1,989,000

http://biz.yahoo.com/indie/060824/211_id.html?.v=1

EchoStar Communications (Nasdaq: DISH - News): Chief Technical Officer Michael Dugan sold 60,000 shares at an average price of $33.15, and Controller Paul Orban sold 6,000 shares at an average price of $33.14 on August 17th. Dugan's sale dropped his holdings to 18,351 shares, while Orban now holds 8,171 shares. Excluding exercise & sales and planned sales, the dispositions were the first by any EchoStar insider in a year. Rumors of a potential merger with DirecTV Group (NYSE: DTV - News) have cooled in recent weeks, and the rivals, after forming a joint venture, recently dropped out of the bidding to buy wireless spectrum from the federal government.

 

[mdonnelly]

I see that the rats are abandoning this ship. Probably before the sh*t hits the fan over DVRs and distant networks.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Or maybe he is selling his stock as it has dropped in value due to the lawsuits. I sure hope that they get the dvr settlement fixed before the dead line. I don't want to lose my dvrs because of Tivo. Not when I finally get my locals up on the satellite but with no way to dvr them.

 

[Hall]

High-level executives do this when they want to pay cash for a new home, buy a yacht, etc, etc. Many people automatically assume it's a bad thing when this happens...

 

[waltinvt]

High-level executives do this when they want to pay cash for a new home, buy a yacht, etc, etc. Many people automatically assume it's a bad thing when this happens...

Dump 2/3 of his holdings just to get a boat or a shack? I don't think so.

 

[Pepper]

Maybe he's going to offer cash for the TiVo patent.

 

[hobojoe]

all of the above seem very realistic!

 

[Poke]

Well All this BS with the DVR will not just effect Dish it could effect Direct TV and cable compaines as well..

 

[jdmac29]

Directv Effect

I am not sure how it will affect directv, they signed an agreement with TIVO not to sue over patent issues when they renewed their contract with TIVO. I have seen execs sell a ton of stock before just before they knew it was going to go down.
Watch and see.
Jdmac29

 

[ptech]

Dump 2/3 of his holdings just to get a boat or a shack? I don't think so.

I did, mid life crisis, new boat, two vehicles and a lake house. toys are nice, especially when they are paid for but perhaps they have another business venture. Who knows, it's their money and they can do what ever the hell they want with it. You would too. Don't take this statement wrong but only time will tell what they are up to or not. We can't do a damn thing but sit back and wait.

Dish will settle with TIVO and pass the buck. We will all pay for the BS lawsuit and our DVR's will continue to work for $10/ month, sucks but wait and see.

 

[havana]

A boat or a shack for almost two million...WOW, when is this inflationary spiral going to stop?

“I have seen execs sell a ton of stock before just before they knew it was going to go down.”

I believe they call that the Martha Stewart maneuver.

 

[dougruss]

Smells like ENRON !!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060826/bs_nm/financial_mergers_nyt_dc_1

 

[Hall]

I have seen execs sell a ton of stock before just before they knew it was going to go down.

Not in the last decade or so you haven't. In case you didn't know, that's considered "insider trading" and people rarely get away with it, at least not company executives.

Did this guy's sale of stock influence Dish's share price ??

This guy is the CTO... maybe he foresees being the "fall guy" for the whole DVR patent mess.

 

[Stargazer]

It sure does not look good when he gets rid of THAT much stock all at once. Heed warning sailers, it looks like a storm's a brewin'.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm surprised that Dugan only owned 78,000 shares. With Charlie being worth somewhere around $7B and Jim at around $3B, I figured people like Dugan to have about $500M, not less than $3M.

Did he sell off a boatload of shares in the last 2-3 years?

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I see that the rats are abandoning this ship. Probably before the sh*t hits the fan over DVRs and distant networks.

Everyone knows that you preserve wealth through diversification. Even Bill Gates has been diversifying.

Also, you must sell a ton more stock than you want to as you must immediately pay the capital gains on the profit - and that takes a huge chunk more.

 

[Bob Haller]

Uncle mikes a busy guy

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I'm surprised that Dugan only owned 78,000 shares. With Charlie being worth somewhere around $7B and Jim at around $3B, I figured people like Dugan to have about $500M, not less than $3M.

Did he sell off a boatload of shares in the last 2-3 years?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=DISH

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=DISH

Of course, the Treasure at DTV did the same:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=DTV

 

[DishSubLA]

I believe according to law and contractual agreements, those execs are allowed to sell only for a brief period, a short window, and it may be several months or even a year before they can sell again. This latest sell-off was chump change compared to the selling a few years ago, by a whole slew of Echostar execs including Mark Jackson, Dave Kummer, the departed Soraya (can't spell her name) and several others. Those folks collected anywhere from 6 - 12 million dollars, each!. This latest sell-off means nothing.

 

[StevenD]

Those are just his Class A "Common" shares. He probably has a ton of Class B stock.