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 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.