Analyst says AT&T "likely" to acquire EchoStar

It already seemed like things were moving along quickly, and now a Citi Investment Research analyst is saying that an AT&T acquisition of Dish-parent (and new Sling owner) Echostar is even more likely. Specifically, Jason Bazinet speculates that there's a "65 percent chance AT&T buys DISH within 12 months," although he apparently had few other details about the potential acquisition to prognosticate about. All of this follows word from the last round of rumors that Echostar would be spinning its consumer TV service off from its technology and equipment business, which we assume is still the slice of the company that AT&T is interested in.

[BananaBoat @ Oct 16th 2007 12:32PM]

Dish service is already through AT&T here, so even if they merge, I imagine things will probably stay the same. Never hurts for a company to suddenly have more cash to throw towards upgrades though.

[Niteryder @ Oct 16th 2007 12:49PM]

AT&T acquires Echostar, then Echostar will acquire Cingular, then Cingular will acquire AT&T for the second time, then.. Um, wait.

[apollo @ Oct 16th 2007 12:49PM]

i work for at&t and one of the first things my boss told me during training was that they were in talks to buy either direct or dish because they wanted to get a piece of the $television pie$. no one was quite sure which it would be because some of the companies snapped up by sbc/new att had deals with direct and some had deals with dish. i wouldnt be suprised by this since they have been pushing the whole u-verse package so hard in the last few months

[SupaflyDaddyC @ Oct 16th 2007 12:50PM]

Is it just me or is AT&T taking over the world one company at a time?

[FreeRange @ Oct 16th 2007 12:55PM]

It's not just you. I'm fine with it though just so long as I can watch my San Francisco Giants in peace without being constantly reminded about AT&...hey, wait a minute!

[rzlmlchm009 @ Oct 16th 2007 2:33PM]

Hence the Death Star logo.

[Max @ Oct 16th 2007 2:05PM]

Well, looks like this will kill the Echostar - DirecTV deal. AT&T is attempting to expand into as many mediums as possible, which is probably a good idea after the Cingular fiasco. I expect the initial negotiations with Echostar to start this week, probably through former corporate ties the companies share http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/common-ties-cou.html

[Jamus @ Oct 16th 2007 2:49PM]

A pox on the conglomeration effect!

Can't a man simply watch his satellite tv without getting hit up for "combo deals"? Not if this goes through. It will be one big "would you like fries with that" effect. TV will be advertised at $30 a month IF you read the small print and find out that is only true if you also get the long distance package to go with it. Bahhh.

[james @ Oct 16th 2007 3:24PM]

Does this mean I'll get TV on my iPhone?
(I know, I know. Sorry)

[Doug @ Oct 16th 2007 3:39PM]

Ugh... That's the last thing I want... AT&T taking over my television service. Dish has been great. I certainly don't want it being ruined by AT&T... They screw up everything they touch.

[404error @ Oct 16th 2007 4:27PM]

second

[Adrian Williams @ Oct 16th 2007 3:57PM]

I hope this don't go through and they are forced to deploy FTTH

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 16th 2007 4:40PM]

maybe I'll get something special. I have Dish for cable and at&t for internet and landline

[Kenneth Lawson @ Oct 16th 2007 4:50PM]

This dose not sound good to me.
I have had Dish for almost 10 years.
They have a solid system, that works good, The program guide is easy to read, the remote works nice and the pvr is solid.

The idea of AT&T or anyone buy them and playing with a solid system scares me. I have visions of their trying interrogate their software, and programing into a very good system, scares me.


I'm not jumping for joy over the thought of it. And I wouldn't even if I owned stock in it.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 16th 2007 6:01PM]

I have the same feeling. I love Dish. Their cable system in my opinion is far superior that Direct. And I hate at&t.

[roger_huston @ Oct 16th 2007 5:02PM]

Well, if Dish subscribers ever needed a reason to jump ship to DirectTV, this is it.

- Roger

[Kenneth Lawson @ Oct 16th 2007 5:43PM]

But I LOVE my Dish....

[roger_huston @ Oct 16th 2007 6:06PM]

You won't once AT&T owns it.

[Matt @ Oct 16th 2007 7:03PM]

Never.DirecTV is more expensive and their foreign channel line up sucks ((I'm not even sure if they have any. On Dish I can at least get Polish TV channels. I hope this WON'T GO THROUGH. I Deeply hate at&t. I Pray that Dish won't sell out to the evil.

Maciek

www.symbiosis60.com

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 16th 2007 8:42PM]

@Matt direct has foreign chanells. Just most of the time the ones from south asia and south east asia black out a lot. I'm Indian and I get perfect quality channels from India. You could also get Greek, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Russian etc.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 16th 2007 8:42PM]

@Matt direct has foreign chanells. Just most of the time the ones from south asia and south east asia black out a lot. I'm Indian and I get perfect quality channels from India. You could also get Greek, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Russian etc.

[Spartacus @ Oct 16th 2007 5:16PM]

Once upon a time there was a big bad monopoly, and the government on it's white steed rode in and slew the monopoly and the world lived happily ever after... for 20 years.

[Tim Ficke @ Oct 16th 2007 5:27PM]

Would this be a god thing or a bad thing?

[digitallysick @ Oct 16th 2007 8:35PM]

You can bet at&t wants to do this, right now cable is kicking there ass, at&t can't beat the VOIP prices, and "triple play" features that cable offers (voip, tv, and net) in one package. This would be the only option for them really to own a chunk of the media market.

[richard essley @ Oct 17th 2007 1:20PM]

what happened to the anti-trust laws in this country? this acquisition would do away with competition.