Dish Network appears increasingly desperate to raise money by selling assets, and on-going battles with speculation from insiders that it may face bankruptcy are on-going.・I found out from the information on The Money.
The struggling satellite TV giant is expected to deliver on its promise to cover 70% of the U.S. with 5G wireless networks by the end of this month, but sources say it’s unclear whether Dish has the money to complete the buildout. increasingly skeptical.
A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told On the Money that Dish’s billionaire boss, Charlie Argen, is keen to sell some of the company’s assets.
“He’s trying to sell everything that’s not core and fund assets that can be financed,” one of the people familiar with the situation told On the Money. “The problem is that what you can sell is very small. It’s a drop in the bucket.”
Ergen has considered a number of partnership options so far, but none seem to be moving forward. T.
The company had considered a merger with satellite provider DirecTV like Dish, but the deal fell through, the people added.
Similarly, customers continue to truncate codes for satellite services, and talks with Amazon to provide spectrum to Prime customers appear to have stalled, the people said.
Mr. Ergen has been spending a lot of time in Washington, D.C., meeting with regulators, trying to get enough money to build out 5G while trying to get more time to complete it.
The company’s next deadline is 2025, and it only requires Dish to cover 75% of the U.S., which means Dish must cover rural and hard-to-serve areas. So that would require billions of dollars.
Blair Levin, policy analyst at New Street Research, said: “The most likely short-term move for the dish is to meet the June 2023 deadline and meet the 2025 FCC requirements. I think it’s about negotiating an extension,” he said in a recent memo.. “The extension of one to two years will allow Dish to save, or at least defer, capital expenditures of two to three billion dollars and give it more runway to grow its consumer and enterprise subscriber base. I guess.”
But it’s unclear whether regulators will approve the extension.
“The only thing that can’t save him is the one thing he can’t buy, and that’s time,” a source told On the Money.
Mr. Dish did not respond to a request for comment.
