Dish Has $10 Billion - What Will It Spend It On?
By Phillip Swann
TVPredictions.com
http://www.tvpredictions.com/dishmoney041113.htm
Washington, D.C. (April 11, 2013) -- Dish has accumulated $10 billion in
cash, triggering rampant and sometimes wild speculation over what
company chairman Charlie Ergen plans to use it for.
Bloomberg News reports that some financial analysts are wondering if
Ergen plans to buy T-Mobile or seek a merger with satellite rival
DIRECTV. Dish has tripled its cash reserves in the past year in large
part by selling debt.
The wire service writes that Dish now has more cash on hand than any
other TV provider or phone service and has roughly the same amount of
money in reserve as Exxon.
A Dish spokesman refuses to comment on what the company plans to do with
all that rainy day money. But Bloomberg quotes financial analyst Tuna
Amobi as saying, "I wouldn't rule out anything, really, knowing Charlie."
That sentiment is shared by just about anyone who has followed Ergen
over the years. The satellite chief is known for being unpredictable and
largely unanswerable to nearly everyone save his wife, Candy. In recent
months, he irked some investors by investing company cash in the
businesses of his sons, a move most would view as a conflict of interest.
While it's highly unlikely that he will park another $10 billion in his
sons' affairs -- after all, he's running out of kids he hasn't backed
yet -- industry observers say they wouldn't be surprised by anything he
does.
Ergen is "clearly getting ready for something," another financial
analyst tells Bloomberg.
Dish, of course, is embroiled in a number of legal disputes, most
notably the company's war with the broadcast networks over its
ad-zapping Hopper HD DVR. Ergen may view the cash largesse as a possible
weapon in that scrape. using it to somehow continue local programming
even if the networks decided to pull their stations. Aereo, which is
offering local stations via new, tiny antennas -- and is also being sued
by the networks -- could be a possible takeover target.
But that certainly wouldn't take $10 billion to accomplish, or anything
close to it.
Whatever Ergen decides to do with his money -- and, let's face it -- he
views the company's cash as his money, it will bear close watching.
And there's nothing new about that. People have been watching Charlie
Ergen very closely ever since he was a card counter in the Las Vegas
casinos more than three decades ago.
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