Dish Network stock rose more than 3% ($1.21) Friday after a
report said the satellite giant had approached T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche
Telekom about a possible merger with the wireless carrier.
Dish closed at $37.3 per share Friday, up $1 or 2.7%, but
the stock had risen as much as 3.3% ($1.21 each) to $37.84 after a
report in Bloomberg News said the second largest satellite television
service provider in the country had approached Deutsche Telekom. Citing unnamed
sources, Bloomberg said Dish approached Deutsche Telekom about a deal before
April 10, the day the German telecommunications giant sweetened
its bid for U.S. wireless carrier Metro PCS. According to Bloomberg, any
deal for T-Mobile USA would happen after the Metro PCS deal closes and "only
after verifying that a separate deal with Sprint-Nextel isn't feasible."
While Dish declined to comment, a pursuit of T-Mobile USA
would be in line with Dish chairman Charlie Ergen's wireless spectrum strategy.
Dish has snapped up about $3 billion in wireless licenses over the past several
years and launched an unsolicited $5
billion bid for Clearwire's spectrum in January. While the
Clearwire deal appears to be on the skids - the WiMax company exercised
an $80 million loan agreement with its majority shareholder Sprint-Nextel
in February, a move that Dish had earlier said would cause it to withdraw its
bid.
Click
here for the full story at Multichannel News.
