Dish Network/T-Mobile Tie-up Still Rumored (DISH, DTEGY, T, GOOG, MMI)
About a month ago, Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) was mentioned as a possible buyer for the T-Mobile USA unit of Deutsche Telekon AG (OTC: DTEGY), should the $39 billion deal with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) fail. It seemed impossible…
About a month ago, Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) was mentioned as a possible buyer for the T-Mobile USA unit of Deutsche Telekon AG (OTC: DTEGY), should the $39 billion deal with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) fail. It seemed impossible that Dish, with a market cap of around $13 billion and $3 billion in cash and equivalents and long-term debt of $7.5 billion could put pull off such a deal.
Some people are still worried about it, because rates on Dish’s credit-default swaps have risen by 30 basis points, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In the same article there is an even more interesting tidbit:
Dish and Google Inc. submitted a bid for T-Mobile, SNL Kagan said yesterday [January 10th], citing unidentified sources.
That’s an intriguing thought, but Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is currently working through issues with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MMI) and it seems reasonable to assume that if the Motorola $12.5 billion deal goes through, regulators are pretty unlikely to smile on a deal that would give Google a carrier as well as a handset maker.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.