Is DN to be bought by someone else?

piotroosh

Member
Original poster
May 17, 2005
14
0
Hi
I'm not a frequent poster here, but I read the forum once in a while.
A while ago I think i read something about possible DN buyout by some company...
Is that correct? what company was it? i can't seem to find any info on it...
Please help.
 
It's entirely up to Charlie, because he has a large majority voting power.

To quote the E* annual report 2005 which I just received:

"Through his direct or indirect ownership of Class A shares and Class B shares, Charles W Ergen, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, possesses 73% of our total voting power".
 
Lets go down the who is buying whom line.

NewsCorp's new A-SKY-B and Dish Network will merger
True. But Rupert started talking with DirecTV and Charlie sued on breach of contract. Rupert lost his satellite (now E*5 and 6) and licenses to 29 transponders at 110 Deg WL

Echostar (owner of Dish) and Hughes (Owner of DirecTV) are going to merge.
True. But then the Justice Dept said they would treat this as a monopoly and the FCC was rumbling they would not approve. Charlie withdraws and Vivendi (which was a major player also buying a huge part of the new corp) wound up paying $450 million to Hughes. Echostar paid another $150 million in "I told you so" fees to Hughes when the the deal failed.

Rupert Murdoch was going to buy Dish after he bought DirecTV. That rumor blew up in no time when LOGIC set in everywhere. If Dish couldn't buy DirecTV due to monopoly, who in their right mind would think that DirecTv could buy Dish?

SBC is buying Dish. Bzzzz.... Some one at SBC thought it might be a good idea. But then ATT and SBC got it on and that was the end of that!

But wait, ATT then made an overture. Charlie said "hell no!" and that was that.

Did I miss any other failed take-over attempts involving Dish?

See ya
Tony
 
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I'd hate to see it sold. Probably mean bad news. Charlie has done pretty well by us, and for himself. Whiners be damned.
 
It is a rotten shame that the Feds butted in when Charlie tried to merge with D*. Their argument that the merger would create a monopoly was myopic and absurd. While a merger would create one large satellite company, satellite still only accounts for 25% of the subscription TV market.

How can a company be a monopoly when competitors have 75% market share? Just another example of what happens when government gets too big and its tentacles reach into areas where they do not belong.

Between E* and D* satellites there is so much redundancy being broadcast. IMAGINE how much bandwidth would be available if a merger were allowed to happen and that redundancy was eliminated. IMAGINE how much HD they could provide! Not to mention a quality Internet service to boot.
 
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