Pursuits
Dish’s Ergen Counts on Two Underdogs Reshaping Wireless
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Charlie Ergen’s $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. is a gamble that two perennial underdogs can transform their industry by giving customers cheap mobile-phone service and the ability to watch TV wherever they want.
Ergen, the billionaire co-founder of Dish Network Corp., announced the offer for Sprint yesterday, arguing that untapped wireless airwaves and operational efficiencies will lead to cheaper data plans for consumers and a new era of out-of-home TV viewing on mobile devices. The result will be a media industry where Dish’s example forces competitors’ prices to come down across the board, Ergen said in an interview.