Posted on 07/20/2006 2:28:12 PM PDT by HAL9000
Shares of America’s #2 satellite television provider, EchoStar Communications, have hit 17-month highs in recent days amid speculation that leading rival, DirecTV Group Inc., could try to purchase the company.Such a merger would likely face regulatory and antitrust hurdles, but many analysts believe that these problems would be relatively easy to overcome. After all, the combined entity could be a strong competitor in the triple play communications industry, now increasingly polarized between cable and telecom carriers.
The decision to merge with DirecTV would rest solely with Charlie Ergen, EchoStar’s Chairman, CEO, and co-founder, who currently controls more than 90% of the company’s voting shares.
“Charlie has three choices. He can be acquired by DirecTV (or) AT&T or do a leveraged buyout and take the company private,” commented Kaufman Bros. analyst, Todd Mitchell, in a recent interview. “If he takes the company private, he still hasn’t done anything about his competitive position.”
In recent years, EchoStar has been on a slow but steady decline, unable to attract enough new customers to maintain financial sustainability. It is becoming increasingly clear to analysts that EchoStar will have a hard time staying both independent and profitable in this highly competitive and volatile industry.
DirecTV rocks.
It rocks - except for live news after midnight.
Dishnetwork's HDTV lineup is significantly superior to that of DirctTV. DirectTV has better sports programming, although it also costs more. Dishnetwork is generally cheaper.
I'm mostly not awake by then anyway.
I switched to it solely for NFL. The on-screen guide sucks compared to DISH, but I'll live with it.
Wasn't this all but a done deal a couple years ago? What's different now?
BTW, I've had Primestar, DirecTV and Dish. Dish is better than Direct, IMHO.
yeah my parents have the old old old DirecTV models which has the old menus and whatnot.
Much better than what we have now.
My FIL has DISH and when I'm trying to find channels on it, I'm completely lost :)
Yes it does but DISH is currently running circles around it in HDTV content. Twice as many HDTV channels on DISH compared to DIRECTV. But I love my DIRECTV HDTV-TIVO.
yep.
I have every episode from the past South Park Season currently on my TIVO.
I'll probably get rid of one or two, but I love having that.
I have the 2005 OSU-Michigan game TIVO'd too.
>>DirecTV rocks.<<
DirecTV is the only place in the world to get genuine Tivos that record two things at once and don't need a seperate cable box. I couldn't ever go back.
Have had DirectTV for years and prefer it to cable in terms of clarity, choices, view options. On all of them, however, the number of paid programming 'shows' have sky rocketed. A broken record sound follows: why pay $50 plus a month for ads?
LOL
yes it is.
I just rewired my entire house so the dish didn't look like a gypsy camp anymore.
The guy who wired it did it quick, probably too quickly.
I agree DISH HD channels are better, but mine don't come in half the time!
Oh I hope not, I've have both Direct TV and Dish (it's a long story) and Dish is head and shoulders above Direct TV. I'll be very sad if Charlie sells. Don't do it Charlie!
HAL9000... Any tips for a person thinking about switching from cable to Dish? Time Warner is still increasing their rates so I'm looking into alternatives and Dish seems to be good.
I switched to it solely for NFL
Dish has the NFL channel now. I hope they offer a cheaper price if they merge.
If this happens then you will see prices shoot up even higher. So much for competition.
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