DISH Makes offer to buy Sprint (Rescinded)

Jim5506

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A better comparison might be Sling Media. Dish bought Sling and incorporated its technology into their DVRs.

Blockbuster was already a basket case and Dish just cleaned up the garbage.
 

GaryPen

Rich or poor, it's good to have money.
Supporting Founder
When Dish bought Blockbuster, Blockbuster was going down for the count. In their financial reports, Charlie said he recognized that fact and indeed it might not be able to be salvaged. But, the name had value and there were enough Blockbuster fixed assets to cover all costs of the purchase price in the event things did not work out. No one else seemed interested in buying the scraps. Seems like a clear headed business decision.
They did blow an opportunity to leverage the brand better. Closing the stores was expected. But, they could have handled streaming and disc-by-mail way better than they did.
In regard to Sling. Sling is a great success and an example of a market niche Dish has developed into something really nice.
It was a better company before they purchased it. Innovation and customer service have both suffered since the acquisition.
 

GaryPen

Rich or poor, it's good to have money.
Supporting Founder
Who here wouldn't love to have Ergen's financial standing, you know, from the results of his "sordid business history" ??
Everybody would love to be rich. But, some people have clear ethical and moral guidelines they follow to attain wealth, while others view the acquisition of wealth as something to be attained by any means, no matter how many people might be negatively affected.
 

MikeD-C05

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They did blow an opportunity to leverage the brand better. Closing the stores was expected. But, they could have handled streaming and disc-by-mail way better than they did.
It was a better company before they purchased it. Innovation and customer service have both suffered since the acquisition.


Thank you Gary. I am glad you recognize that DISH didn't do anything to help Blockbuster after they purchased it and basically just helped shut it down. The whole streaming thing could of been something if DISH had actually developed it , instead of shutting it down. All my devices that had a streaming Blockbuster applications now don't work and aren't supported any longer. Blockbuster will just become a name only for DISH streaming video on demand.
 
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MikeD-C05

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Everybody would love to be rich. But, some people have clear ethical and moral guidelines they follow to attain wealth, while others view the acquisition of wealth as something to be attained by any means, no matter how many people might be negatively affected.

Or Vulture Capitalism.
 

MikeD-C05

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*Waver. Unless of course you're implying some sort of legal issue where a written release of responsibility is required.

I find that when someone focuses on how something is spelt ,rather than what is behind the words conveyed in the sentence , that they are not really trying to discuss anything. Just trying to be right at any cost. OKAY, I misspelled the word waver. But since I am in a satellite focused discussion board were waivers were often discussed in the past for distant networks , I would think that would be forgiven. But as usual we degrade down into small minds and gotcha catches .:rolleyes:
 

tomcrown1

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Mar 20, 2008
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A better comparison might be Sling Media. Dish bought Sling and incorporated its technology into their DVRs.

Blockbuster was already a basket case and Dish just cleaned up the garbage.

Did you know that the stand alone Sling does not sell as well as it once did. Iam not saying this is a failure on Dish part as their plan may have been to do away with selling sling in the retail market.

Dish may make sling a dish exclusive thus giving more value to dish. IE if you want the benfit of the sling you have to go with dish. This may have been their plan when Dish bought sling(slowly closing down the retail market of sling)
 

TheKrell

A mighty and noble race originating on Altair IV.
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Jan 4, 2007
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Thank you Gary. I am glad you recognize that DISH didn't do anything to help Blockbuster after they purchased it and basically just helped shut it down. The whole streaming thing could of been something if DISH had actually developed it , instead of shutting it down.

I vehemently agree with you and Gary. It had so much promise once acquired by Dish and hyped to the skies by senior management, at just the right moment when Neflix stumbled by splitting streaming from mail and charging twice as much. It got me to switch!

But the Dish investment in BB never materialized beyond the original purchase price. The mail service started out pretty bad and got so much worse it's basically useless to me these days. (I am lucky to get one "new" movie a month.) And the streaming? Where are the clients, other than on my VIP DVRs? And where is the selection, other than channels that were already in the old Platinum HD? :mad: It's just a failure to execute on a monumental scale. The vision was there, as shown at the press conference. The time was right, and then nothing but a death spiral.

I think Mike is basically right. Dish bought out BB, and instead of executing their vision and making something big (i.e. compete with Netflix), they are just squeezing any goodwill out of the name they can, and eventually they will just shutter the service. :rant:
 

meStevo

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Aug 20, 2004
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Yeah, was never a fan of the 'well they're not going to lose money on BB so it was a good deal' pass Charlie gets for it. Such a popular and iconic brand that had indeed already dug it's own grave, but instead of turning it into something else Dish just said "lets make that hole wider, deeper!" when their retail ambitions never panned out.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
 

Tyralak

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Oct 21, 2003
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Secure, Undisclosed Location
I find that when someone focuses on how something is spelt ,rather than what is behind the words conveyed in the sentence , that they are not really trying to discuss anything. Just trying to be right at any cost. OKAY, I misspelled the word waver. But since I am in a satellite focused discussion board were waivers were often discussed in the past for distant networks , I would think that would be forgiven. But as usual we degrade down into small minds and gotcha catches .:rolleyes:

3t4dmz.jpg
 

Tampa8

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In regard to Sling. Sling is a great success and an example of a market niche Dish has developed into something really nice.

It was a better company before they purchased it. Innovation and customer service have both suffered since the acquisition.

You are way way off on that, sounds good as a throwout line but the facts speak differently. Some great things happened since Dish took over Sling. Obviously it's in all the new Dish boxes, but beyond that;

1. Ended the horrible Slingcatcher, an expensive unit no one really even understood.

2. Have introduced two new Slingboxes. Both work very well, stream a little better than previous models and have new features for home use. (I do think they made a mistake in not including OTA something I use ALL the time on my older boxes)

3. BIG BIG addition is now having the Slingbox APP in internet streaming devices. Slingbox users have wanted that probably more than anything. Completely updates using a Slingbox.

4. They have continued to update the mobile Slingbox phone apps, including with new features. (Just to name two - a new faster way to see the guide and more sound options)

5. Now Dish has added a Slingbox Tablet APP especially suited to the large size of the screen, including having an actual remote that you use exactly like you would if you had the remote in your hand.

6. And just added, now you can limit how much bandwidth use to allow when using the Slingbox APP on the cellular system to help not to go over your limit.

It has been nothing but great advancements ever since Dish took over. You couldn't be more wrong.
 
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pedrogarcia

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Dec 27, 2008
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Kalamazoo / Limassol
If that is truly your view on Dish then why are you even in the Dish forum? I have been a Dish retailer and customer for years so I can be a little biased but you will not see me go to the DirecTV forum and bash their product. I do the opposite actually, I know that DirecTV has their benefits just the same as Dish does. If I feel a customer will benefit more from DirecTV I have no problems with that.

Since I have neither Dish or Direct I have looked at both forums together with the unsolicited twice a week offers from Dish (one from my telephone provider) and weekly from Direct over many months. I find very llittle difference in the services and clearly some locations will not have a choice due to LOS. Fortunately I have a clear vista 30w through 139w but neither Dish or Direct provide all the channels I would like.
What I had not realised is that Americans are unaware of the full channel choice for example of 9 Nat Geo and Discovery channels available outside the US. Unfortunately my internet provider maximum 5M is not as fast as I would like and margianally sufficient for slingbox to my EU subscription.
I appreciate your stance as a dish retailer.
 

Teehar

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Sep 29, 2010
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Since I have neither Dish or Direct I have looked at both forums together with the unsolicited twice a week offers from Dish (one from my telephone provider) and weekly from Direct over many months. I find very llittle difference in the services and clearly some locations will not have a choice due to LOS. Fortunately I have a clear vista 30w through 139w but neither Dish or Direct provide all the channels I would like.
What I had not realised is that Americans are unaware of the full channel choice for example of 9 Nat Geo and Discovery channels available outside the US. Unfortunately my internet provider maximum 5M is not as fast as I would like and margianally sufficient for slingbox to my EU subscription.
I appreciate your stance as a dish retailer.

I'm not trying to be a jerk,just curious.Myself I feel there are too many watered down channels as it is.What is so great about 9 more channels of Nat Geo and Discovery?With AT 250 I currently have at least 11 channels of Discovery and Nat Geo.

Disc
TLC
Vel
Destination Amercia
APL
Sci
ID
Mil
Dis Kids
Nat Geo
Nat Geo Wild

Gee I didn't realize that Discovery Networks also own the HUB and OWN

So that makes 13 channels,could easily be consolidated into 3-5 channels.
 

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