After years of defying expectations to build the nation’s No. 2 satellite-TV provider, Dish Network chairman, president and CEO Charlie Ergen faces what could be his greatest challenge ever: How to dig his company — and his reputation as a successful maverick — out of a black hole.
In the past 15 months, Dish’s stock price has plunged more than 71%, to $9.10 per share on March 3, 2009. Its revenue growth cratered in the most-recent fourth quarter, to 1% compared to a year earlier. And its customer losses jumped from 25,000 in the second quarter (its first quarterly subscriber loss ever) to 102,000 in the fourth quarter.
All the while, the overall economic climate continues to worsen, with the stock market plunging to its lowest point since 1997.
