Charlie Ergen Gets Chance to Play Kingmaker as Deal Derby Begins
- Dish chairman could insert self in Sprint-T-Mobile talks
- Verizon seen looking beyond traditional telecom industry
Justin Preziosi, field service specialist for Dish Network Corp., prepares to install a satellite television system at a residence in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013. Dish Network Corp., the third-largest U.S. pay-TV company by customers, and Charter Communications Inc., the eighth-biggest, both may look to combine with competitors as a way to gain leverage in negotiations with TV networks to carry their programming.
Photographer: Matthew Staver/BloombergIt’s fitting that Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen is set to speak to Wall Street just as the wireless industry’s merger moratorium is lifted. His company’s massive stockpile of airwaves figures heavily in the speculation over who will buy whom.
Dish reports earnings Monday, just days after the end of a government-imposed quiet period related to a federal sale of wireless spectrum. In that auction and other deals over the past decade, Ergen’s satellite-TV company compiled $34.7 billion worth of nation-blanketing airwaves. Ergen kept buying spectrum even after an effort to merge with Sprint Corp. fizzled a few years ago, and investors have been trying to figure out his endgame ever since.