Power Player: Dish's Charlie Ergen

Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman of Dish Network, makes an unsolicited $2.28 billion bid for Clearwire, trumping Sprint's offer in a possible power play.

Published

5 months ago

Categories

Technology

Topics

Technology, Markets

People

Charlie Ergen

Companies

Sprint Nextel Corporation, Dish Network Corporation, Clearwire

Transcript

The Power Player today is Charlie Ergen. The billionaire founder and chairman of Dish Network and EchoStar - making an unsolicited $2.28 billion bid for Clearwire. His offer for the wireless provider trumps Sprint's $2.2 billion proposal already on the table. Ergen is raising a lot of eyebrows. Some analysts say Ergen's chief goal may not be Clearwire. They speculate his bid is a power play meant to spark a bidding war with Sprint. Or may be payback; Sprint opposed some of Dish's wireless spectrum plans and is blamed for slowing Dish's network building last year. There's also speculation Ergen may be trying to force a three-way partnership between Dish, Sprint and Clearwire. Ergen founded the Dish Network in 1980, after selling satellite dishes from the back of a truck. Today, he is one of the country's richest people with a net worth of at least $9 billion. But he says the pay TV industry has matured. So what's next for Ergen, here's a clue: He's been gobbling up wireless spectrum and in December, the FCC gave him the green light to build a wireless network. Ergen stopped running Dish on a day-to-day basis so he can focus on the company's wireless strategy.