Ergen still committed

[platinum]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/11/14/financial1419EST0082.DTL

[bryan27]

EchoStar Communications Corp. would likely raise prices for its Dish Network satellite television service if its proposed merger with DirecTV owner Hughes Electronics Corp. fails, chief executive officer Charlie Ergen said Thursday.

Probably to pay for all the legal fees and not having a long term plan. I can see it now on Charlie Chat. Customer: 'Why did my bill go from $22 to $44?' Charlie: 'Blame the Department of Justice and the FCC, write your Congressman, it's not our fault the merger would have kept rates low'

Still, Ergen said EchoStar was focused on finding remedies to its merger application to allay regulators' concerns of a satellite monopoly, and had not thought of "Plan B" if the merger fails.

What kind of company doesn't have at least 1 plan to fall back on. Oh, wait this is E* were talking about :rolleyes: E* knew from the start that there was a chance of non-aproval and should have had something in place.

[platinum]

Charlie put all his eggs in one basket and now his basket broke.

[Mike123abc]

Well plan B now is obviously business as usual... Not much else E* will be able to do besides saying that they have no backup plan. They cannot say they have other plans at this time or risk breakup fee too.

They have a few options when 1/21 finally gets here:

1) Team up with R/L DBS and get more capacity at 61.5 plus better negotiated rates for all the cable channels that Cablevision controls

2) Team up with someone else in the entertainment industry to get more content at better rates.

3) continue as is

[Crazy 1]

I'm glad I switched back to D* in 10/2001. But we all will probably feel the affects of the merger not being passed to some degree. But I believe E* customers will pay for charlie's bad judgments. Pass around the collection plate, charlie needs to pay all those legal fees. :lol:

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Crazy 1
I'm glad I switched back to D* in 10/2001. But we all will probably feel the affects of the merger not being passed to some degree. But I believe E* customers will pay for charlie's bad judgments. Pass around the collection plate, charlie needs to pay all those legal fees. :lol:


This is so tragic. But you should be thankful that the merger didn't happen so at least you have a choice in satellite providers. Charlie raises rates? No problem! Your old echostar dish will work just fine with DirecTV.

[Crazy 1]

Oh trust me, I wasn't for the merger in the first place, I'm glade I have a choice in DBS providers. If charlie ever does get his hands on D* then it's time for me to back to OTA for TV, and back to the video store for movies, since I live in a rual area not served by cable, not that would be my choice if I had it.