Dish /Direct Merger Hits A Roadblock

[scottcorinna]

Not so fast on the merger.

DirecTV/Dish merger has a problem as debt holders object to $1.6 billion loss

Debt holders oppose $1.6 billion value reduction, throwing wrench into TV merger.

arstechnica.com

 

[John2021]

direct should just ride the storm out and let dish go broke then buy everything for pennies on the dollar

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH had a conference call yesterday... From what was reported to me by a number of folks who were on the call DISH already got their money for this deal.

I reported what was told me to me by the participants in this post.

Looks like It’s official Directv Buying Dish

‪‬If it was my guess, I would think Charlie would be the winner of the actual war while the battle for $1 may be lost now as whatever Charlie has left, he will basically let the blood draining be a casualty of the new owner of DISH while he will try to get Boost growing and if successful, he...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[scottcorinna]

DISH had a conference call yesterday... From what was reported to me by a number of folks who were on the call DISH already got their money for this deal.

I reported what was told me to me by the participants in this post.

Looks like It’s official Directv Buying Dish

‪‬If it was my guess, I would think Charlie would be the winner of the actual war while the battle for $1 may be lost now as whatever Charlie has left, he will basically let the blood draining be a casualty of the new owner of DISH while he will try to get Boost growing and if successful, he...

www.satelliteguys.us

I wonder if any of the debt holders were on the call? Holding 1.6b in debt would warrant a seat at the table.
Any way you look at this it'll be a while before this goes through.

 

[bookworm370]

I admit I quickly read it, but it said the debt holders would take a 1.6B loss.
Um
Didn't Direct TV buy Dish for $1 PLUS assuming all the debt?
So what loss? It's now Direct TV that owes them. Same debt!

 

[Tom Speer]

I admit I quickly read it, but it said the debt holders would take a 1.6B loss.
Um
Didn't Direct TV buy Dish for $1 PLUS assuming all the debt?
So what loss? It's now Direct TV that owes them. Same debt!

No it isn't. The terme of the deal as I understand it, which the bondholders have to approve, is they would have to exchange their current bonds for new ones with less principal value, maturing later, with a larger interest rate (higher annual return to bondholders). Their alternative if they fail to approve it is the deal fails, EchoStar goes bankrupt and defaults on the debt.

As far as DISH already getting the money, that would be the $1.

 

[HipKat]

I admit I quickly read it, but it said the debt holders would take a 1.6B loss.
Um
Didn't Direct TV buy Dish for $1 PLUS assuming all the debt?
So what loss? It's now Direct TV that owes them. Same debt!

It's actually TPS that owns both companies or the merged company and I haven't fact-checked this but I understand TPS already was a big time investor in Echostar

No it isn't. The terme of the deal as I understand it, which the bondholders have to approve, is they would have to exchange their current bonds for new ones with less principal value, maturing later, with a larger interest rate (higher annual return to bondholders). Their alternative if they fail to approve it is the deal fails, EchoStar goes bankrupt and defaults on the debt.

As far as DISH already getting the money, that would be the $1.

This^

 

[nelson61]

I admit I quickly read it, but it said the debt holders would take a 1.6B loss.
Um
Didn't Direct TV buy Dish for $1 PLUS assuming all the debt?
So what loss? It's now Direct TV that owes them. Same debt!

There are multiple layers of debt. Most of the tv debt is being rolled and will be carried by Directv.
Echostar and it's wireless business retains the rest of it.

A smaller sub group of bondholders are the ones being asked to accept a haircut of 1.5+ billion.
They are the ones asking for asset guarantees, etc. to protect their remaining investment.
They have until the end of this month to come to a deal.