Dish Network Corp is in talks to merge with T-Mobile US Inc, though the purchase price is unresolved, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.
T-Mobile US president and chief executive officer John Legere would take the top role at the combined company, and Dish’s Charlie Ergen would be chairman, according to the WSJ report.
The companies have a combined market value of about US$64 billion, based on their closing prices on Wednesday in New York.
Photo: Reuters
Ergen, Dish’s largest shareholder, contacted T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG in September last year about acquiring the US unit, people familiar with the talks said at the time.
He has said he is looking for acquisitions that will help him put a US$50 billion stockpile of airwaves to work, and he previously lost a bid for Sprint Corp.
Adding T-Mobile’s estimated 57 million wireless subscribers would help Dish fend off gains in video-streaming customers by Netflix Inc, Hulu and Amazon.com Inc.
Dish and T-Mobile had a combined US$45 billion in sales and US$1.5 billion in profit during the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Legere took to Twitter to criticize a story on the Re/code Web site about the talks as a “shallow look at a rumor.”
It “deserves no comment,” he said yesterday.
The Re/code article said in part: “A deal between Dish and T-Mobile is akin to two people who hook up because they are the last ones left in the bar at closing time.”
Investors are focused on how Ergen plans to revive growth at Dish, which lost 79,000 pay-TV subscribers last year.
He is under pressure to merge or partner with a wireless carrier that would help deliver a mobile-based challenger to the pay-TV industry.
There have been more than US$700 billion in industry deals by rivals in the last three years as wireless carriers and cable operators rush to add more services.
Dish, which also lost the bidding for Clearwire Corp, added spectrum in an auction last month and also started Sling TV, an online service charging US$20 a month.
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