A Dish Network Corp. director who resigned in recent weeks did so amid a disagreement over the company's handling of a bid for a telecommunications firm that could deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of personal profits to Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, people involved in the situation said.
The director, Gary Howard, was on a special board committee formed to vet the LightSquared Inc. deal because of a potential conflict of interest on Mr. Ergen's part, the people said. Mr. Ergen in the past year or so bought LightSquared debt at discounts and would personally profit in a Dish purchase of LightSquared, according to court documents and people familiar with the trades.
In July, Dish said in a filing a special board committee recommended its $2.22 billion bid for LightSquared. People involved in the matter say the committee members, two independent directors, also indicated to the board they expected the committee to have an ongoing role in the deal discussions. They were concerned the deal could look bad, given Mr. Ergen's personal interest, and wanted to keep open the possibility that Mr. Ergen could direct some of his gains to Dish shareholders, the people said.
