EchoStar Wins DirecTV Bid

from the is-it-really-over? dept

Could it be? Could the deal actually be done? For a year and half Rupert Murdoch (with the assistance of Bill Gates) has been talking and negotiating and talking and negotiating and talking and negotiating while trying to buy Hughes from GM to get at DirecTV. While all of this has been happening, EchoStar's Charlie Ergen has been yelling "wait, look at me! look at me! I have no money, but I want to buy DirecTV instead!" They finally made a bid a few months ago, despite not having any actual money. So, after all this mess, it appears that Ergen held his poker face long enough, Murdoch threw in his cards and EchoStar ends up with DirecTV - meaning if you want satellite TV in the US, you're pretty much down to one choice (federal regulators are foaming at the mouth). It's interesting to see that some of the cash being paid by EchoStar is coming from... GM. Yes, that's right, GM is providing some of the cash to EchoStar, who is using that cash to pay GM for Hughes.

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