Dish Considers Making a Bid for T-Mobile

Just when industry professionals thought Sprint and Dish were getting along due to their agreement to work together to test a fixed wireless broadband service in Corpus Christi, Texas, news broke that Dish may be putting in a competing offer against Sprint to purchase T-Mobile. This will be the satellite TV provider’s second attempt in two years at acquiring a major wireless operator. According to Reuters, “Dish Network Corp, which lost out to Japanese telecoms giant Softbank in its attempt to buy Sprint Corp several months ago, has since been sizing up T-Mobile US Inc as a takeover candidate and has talked to majority owner Deutsche Telekom AG about a potential deal, the three sources said.” Dish’s Chairman Charlie Ergen is looking to expand the company he founded beyond the mature pay TV market and also wants to put to work the billions of dollars in wireless spectrum he’s amassed in the past few years. (Source: Reuters) It hasn’t been confirmed that either of these companies are making a bid for T-Mobile; although if Sprint makes an offer Dish won’t sit on the sidelines and lose out on this opportunity. If Dish were to make a bid for T-Mobile it would be likely that it would easily receive antitrust approval since it will keep four large wireless operators in the United States; however, it will be a bigger transition for Dish than it would be for Sprint because the company doesn’t have a network or infrastructure, just wireless spectrum.