Dish Network please offering of $2 billion in Sr. Notes

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH NETWORK PLACES OFFERING OF $2 BILLION IN SENIOR NOTES

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.— May 3, 2011 — DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) today announced that its subsidiary, DISH DBS Corporation, has priced an offering of $2 billion aggregate principal amount of debt securities at an issue price of 99.093%. The debt securities will be issued as 6.75% Senior Notes due 2021. The net proceeds of the offering are intended to be used for general corporate purposes. The offering is expected to close on May 5, 2011, subject to customary conditions.

DISH DBS Corporation placed the notes in a private placement under Rule 144A and Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act&rdquo. The notes have not been registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the notes; nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in DISH Network Corporation’s Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements included in its recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K and its most recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and DISH Network Corporation expressly disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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[lakebum431]

"The net proceeds of the offering are intended to be used for general corporate purposes." Thanks for the transparancy there Dish...

 

[nelson61]

Interesting. They filed an 8k yesterday for 1 billion and followed up with a new 8k today for the 2 billion with disclosure that it has been privately placed.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

As the old saying goes: "English, please."

 

[csmith5111]

As the old saying goes: "English, please."

I second that please.

 

[TravelFan1]

they can use for whatever the heck they want - pay bills, retire old debt, pay dividends, pay salaries, bonuses, benefits.... that's what "General Corporate Purposes" mean. 6.75% at par and sold at a little discount - if Dish doesn't file for bankruptcy until notes due date, this is a great investment in the current market of very low interest rates. On the other hand, who knows how the interest rates will be in 5, let alone 8 years from now....

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dish has a plan. They know exactly what they want that money for.

If I had to guess I would say it is for a nationwide LTE data network just for Dish Network customers. With isp's running to put in data caps to keep people from watching too much Netflix Hulu and even DishOnline, Dish Netowrk customers will be able to pull movies instantly using Dish Networks private network avoiding the data caps from their ISPs all together.

That is my guess anyways.

 

[HDRoberts]

Dish has a plan. They know exactly what they want that money for.

I recently read an interview with Charlie where he called it the Seinfeld strategy. Dish would take a bunch of seeming non-nonsensical and non-connected moves, then all the sudden at the close, they are tied together to make sense.

A lot of the decision-making for Dish will also be about piecing together parts that it has recently acquired in a way that makes sense. From this perspective, Ergen referred to Dish’s plans as a “Seinfled strategy.” That is, a lot of things happen in the first 28 minutes of each Seinfeld episode that might not necessarily make sense. But each episode gets tied together some way in the final minutes of the show.

“I think in terms of where we’re going strategically, you’ll have to just wait and see where it all comes together,” Ergen said. “That’s a little hard to explain it and it’s early in the show, so to speak. Then for you skeptics out there, of course, Seinfeld was a show about nothing, so it could be a strategy about nothing… But I think that everything we do has a purpose and we feel like it ultimately fits together.”

Hacking NetFlix : Dish Network CEO: "I don

I think we are seeing some of these weird moves:

-These notes
-Buying Blockbuster
-The data center talked about in the uplink center sticky thread
-Buying all that radio spectrum in the 700mhz auction

LTE for private steaming sounds like it could fit. But there are other possibilities. I bet it is something to do with streaming myself.

 

[lakebum431]

Dish has a plan. They know exactly what they want that money for.

If I had to guess I would say it is for a nationwide LTE data network just for Dish Network customers. With isp's running to put in data caps to keep people from watching too much Netflix Hulu and even DishOnline, Dish Netowrk customers will be able to pull movies instantly using Dish Networks private network avoiding the data caps from their ISPs all together.

That is my guess anyways.

Well technically if they knew what they were going to use it for and it was for one big thing (like the LTE mentioned above), they would have to disclose that. But they may "know" without having made the final decisions/approvals. It is a bit of a loophole, but not uncommon.