The move comes just ahead of a vote of Clearwire shareholders scheduled for later Tuesday — a vote that clearly wasn’t going to go Sprint’s way. Sprint, which already owns just more than half of Clearwire, needed the approval of the majority of Clearwire’s minority shareholders — some of which vocally opposed the deal.

With the new offer, Clearwire said it is adjourning the scheduled meeting without taking any action, and its board will review the new offer. The meeting is now set to resume May 30.

“Consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, the Special Committee of the Clearwire Board of Directors will review this revised proposal from Sprint,” Clearwire said.

It’s unclear, though, whether the bump will be enough to satisfy shareholders such as Crest Financial, who have said they believe that Clearwire is worth significantly more than Sprint’s original $2.97-per-share offer. Sprint’s offer has also been contingent upon its deal with SoftBank going through, and Dish Network is also offering a rival bid for Sprint.

Sprint touted the benefits of its increased bid, while also saying it was the company’s “best and final offer.”

“The revised offer demonstrates Sprint’s commitment to closing the Clearwire transaction and improving its competitive position in the U.S. wireless industry,” Sprint said in a statement. “Sprint’s proposal provides a clear path forward for Clearwire and the merger provides attractive value for shareholders of both companies.”

Update, 10:25 a.m.: Crest Financial said it opposes the new bid as well and took issue with Clearwire’s handling of things, saying it should have a competitive bid process if it is going to sell itself.

“Clearwire is acting in its usual stockholder-unfriendly way by adjourning the special meeting to grant Sprint the ability to pose a new, still inadequate offer,” Crest general counsel David K. Schumacher said in a statement. “This is a consistent theme of this Board: Do everything possible to secure an undesirable merger with Sprint at a below market price.”

Crest also sent a letter to Clearwire’s board, urging them to reject the new bid.

The waiver allows Sprint to share certain details with Dish in order that Dish might make a formal bid. Previously, Sprint only had permission to get more information from Dish on its bid.

Both Dish and SoftBank say theirs is the best offer for Sprint. Sprint’s board has recommended approval of the SoftBank offer at a shareholder meeting next month. However, a special committee of Sprint directors is currently evaluating the Dish proposal to see if it might lead to a higher bid.

“We continue to believe that our agreed transaction, which we plan to close in approximately six weeks, creates substantially greater value and provides far greater certainty for Sprint shareholders,” SoftBank Holdings president Ron Fisher said in a statement on Monday. “We are providing this waiver because we are confident in the value of our transaction, and to ensure that Sprint and Softbank can move quickly and with no risk of delay or confusion, towards implementing our detailed investment plans.”

SoftBank said it hopes the waiver will allow the Sprint directors to promptly evaluate Dish’s offer and to complete the SoftBank deal as scheduled by July 1.

Mr. Ergen, the chairman of satellite-TV operator Dish Network Corp., made the offer to LightSquared on Wednesday, one of the people said. Mr. Ergen’s offer is for LightSquared’s so-called L-band spectrum, this person said. Spectrum is the limited pockets of airwaves that telecommunications firms need to operate wireless networks.

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While Sprint already owns 51 percent of Clearwire, the deal requires the approval of the majority of shares voted by Clearwire’s other owners.

And the biggest of those — Crest Financial — strongly opposes the deal and has been soliciting votes against it, arguing that Clearwire is worth way more than the $2.97 per share that Sprint has offered. According to a Reuters analysis, the current deal is unlikely to pass. Wall Street also seems to be betting on a higher bid, as Clearwire shares closed trading last week at $3.20.

Crest has also sued to block a Sprint deal, hiring noted law firm Quinn Emanuel to make its case.

Pass or not, though, Sprint itself is still the subject of competing offers. Its board approved a deal with SoftBank. And Dish countered with its own offer. Both sides say their offer is the better one.

Sprint shareholders are due to vote June 12 on the SoftBank deal, an offer that has the backing of Sprint’s board and management. However, a special committee of Sprint directors is considering whether Dish’s intent is likely to lead to a “superior offer.” If so, it could change its stance on the SoftBank deal.

So, basically it’s all clear as mud. We’ll see if things look any clearer after Tuesday’s vote than they do now.

Which one that is depends, of course, on which company you ask: Dish Network or SoftBank, the two suitors for the No. 3 wireless carrier.

Each thinks it is and their rival is not, which is how contested deals always go — a back and forth of accusations and counter-charges that usually only result in muddying the waters.

Very muddy, in fact. Along with two strong-minded (and, more to the point, voluble) leaders — SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and Dish’s Charlie Ergen — each side has an army of bankers, lawyers and other advisers willing to trot out a number of arguments for why its offer is superior and the myriad risks and downsides to the competitor’s bid.

And of course, the ultimate winner in this battle will have a huge impact on both Sprint itself and the overall level of competition in the U.S. wireless market.

So, for the benefit of the confused individual investors and consumers out there, we’ll try to boil down the points and counterpoints, as well as explain where things go from here.

SoftBank on Why Its Bid Is Better Than Dish’s:

Son made an hour-long, 11-point argument recently for why the Japanese investment and telecom giant’s bid is superior, but it basically boils down to three key points.

1) SoftBank is maintaining that Dish’s bid is actually not as good financially.

“It is incomplete and illusory,” Son said of the Dish bid, who insisted a deal by the satellite behemoth will take longer to complete and create a company swimming in debt. In contrast, Son pointed out that SoftBank is offering to put $8 billion into the company ($3.9 billion of this is already invested, so even if Dish were to prevail, SoftBank would be a significant Sprint shareholder.)

2) SoftBank promises it can get its deal done by July, while a Dish outcome could take well into next year to complete.

3) When it comes to managing things, SoftBank notes that instead of wireless experience, Dish brings only the baggage of its legacy business and a history of litigation with its partners.

SoftBank, as it touts itself, has experience running wireless companies and can offer improved scale to Sprint when it comes to buying network equipment and handsets.

“We are the world’s largest customer for many of these vendors,” Son said, emphasizing the buying power that Sprint would gain with companies such as Samsung, Ericsson and Apple. “Dish has zero expertise in our mobile industry.”

Dish, on Why Its Bid Is Better Than Softbank’s:

Dish’s main point is that its offer is just flat-out more money.

“It’s a higher financial offer,” Ergen said. “At Dish’s current stock price, our cash and the value of our shares … it’s about $7.10. The counter-offer from SoftBank is about $6.38. In fact, that’s not my words; that’s from Sprint’s own proxy.”

As for the fact its deal will take longer, Ergen says it won’t take as long as Sprint maintains and said the higher offer more than accounts for the delay.

But Ergen says Dish’s bid has several other advantages as well.

1) Dish brings a bunch of its own spectrum, representing airwaves that Sprint will inevitably need. By combining with Dish, Dish insists, Sprint will save itself from spending billions of dollars later.

2) The combined Dish/Sprint would be able to offer a combination of video, voice and data services. On the other hand, Sprint under SoftBank will have some additional capital, Dish says, but in essence be the same company that is today struggling to compete against larger rivals such as AT&T and Verizon.

3) While SoftBank is offering a bunch of cash up front, Dish said it will bring more ongoing value by virtue of various synergies, as well as the cash flow from Dish’s existing business.

“We’re bringing $20 billion of equity to the merger,” Ergen said. “I’m bringing $10 billion of equity personally. I’m taking my entire net worth and putting it into a Dish/Sprint transaction.”

Beyond the dollars-and-sense arguments, Ergen is attempting to wrap his deal in the flag, noting that his bid will create an American-owned company with Americans making the decisions, while SoftBank’s bid will put Sprint in foreign hands.

“Culturally we are much more aligned with Sprint today than probably a foreign company would be,” Ergen said. “A Japanese culture would be different than a U.S. culture. Our language is different; our culture is different. It doesn’t make their culture bad; they have a great culture. But it’s different.”

Subtle much?

Where things go from here:

Sprint is moving ahead to get all the regulatory and shareholder approvals that it needs with a goal of having the deal ready to close on July 1. A shareholder vote on SoftBank’s proposal is slated for June 12.

However, Sprint’s board has a duty to explore Dish’s bid, so it has formed a special committee to do that. That group of five independent directors — which has its own bankers and legal advisers — is in the early stages of evaluating Dish’s offer, having gotten permission from SoftBank to seek more information from the satellite company. Its job is to “provide its assessment to the full board in due course whether the proposal is, or is reasonably likely to lead to, a superior offer.”

But while Sprint is getting more information from Dish to understand its bid, information is not, at this point, flowing in the other direction. Sprint is not sharing any non-public info with Dish, meaning that Dish can’t yet undertake the due dilligence needed to make a formal bid and arrange financing.

For that to happen, Dish needs a determination from Sprint’s board committee that Dish’s interest could well lead to a superior offer. That would then pave the way for Sprint to crack open the books and Dish to make its offer.

Clearwire Muddies Things Further

A complicating factor in all this is Clearwire. Sprint already owns the majority of the wireless network operator and is seeking to buy the rest of the company to boost its spectrum position. Sprint’s bid, though, is contingent on the SoftBank deal going through.

Dish had also tried to buy Clearwire before it made its offer for Sprint. Clearwire, though, is moving forward to close its deal with Sprint, though a dissident shareholder is seeking to block the deal both through a lawsuit and proxy battle.

So where does this leave things?

For the moment, investors are betting that the existence of two interested parties will mean a higher offer from someone. Shares closed on Wednesday at $7.32, higher than either company’s current offer for the company.

Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for Sprint and its customers, with little near-term impact expected as the company continues playing catch-up with AT&T and Verizon in the race to cover America with a next-generation LTE network.

Dish’s assertion that its $25.5 billion offer presents a premium to SoftBank’s proposal is “totally wrong” and “incomplete and illusory,” he declared, in a 40-minute fusillade Tuesday aimed at winning over Sprint shareholders.

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In December, Sprint offered to buy the rest of Clearwire in a $2.2 billion deal, and provided the wireless broadband operator up to $800 million in financing that it could draw on in installments of $80 million over 10 months. The company didn’t take that funding in January or February, as it was considering an offer from satellite TV company Dish Network Corp., DISH +2.03% but took the cash in March and April.

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Pay-TV provider Dish Network Corp. has offered $25.5 billion for the mobile-phone carrier, in a headline-grabbing attempt to break up Sprint’s agreement to be bought by SoftBank Corp.

But Sprint is waging another battle over a separate, lower-profile effort to buy the roughly 50 percent stake it doesn’t own in wireless-broadband operator Clearwire Corp.

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Sprint is also in the process of trying to hire an investment bank to help it assess the unsolicited offer, the people said. For Dish to succeed, Sprint would have to reject its $20 billion agreement to sell a 70 percent stake to Japan’s Softbank Corp.

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The comments by Sprint’s fourth-largest shareholder give a boost to Dish, which lodged its unsolicited cash-and-stock offer Monday. The satellite-television operator is looking to expand its offerings to include mobile-phone service at a time when the pay-television market is reaching a saturation point.

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SoftBank’s statement comes despite a rival $25.5 billion bid for Sprint coming from Dish Network.

“SoftBank believes that the agreed terms of our transaction with Sprint offer Sprint shareholders superior short and long term benefits to Dish’s highly conditional preliminary proposal,” SoftBank said in a statement. “The SoftBank-Sprint transaction is in the advanced stages of receiving the necessary approvals, and we expect to consummate the transaction on July 1, 2013.”

Ergen is famous for being a tough boss not keen on coddling his employees. At the same time, Ergen says hard workers who are good at their jobs like working for him. It’s only slackers and those who fall short who grumble.

Ergen was also one of the most colorful speakers at our D: Dive Into Media conference in February.

In that candid chat, he talked about the wireless industry, as well as cord-cutting and his controversial management style. In light of Dish’s $25.5 billion bid for Sprint, Peter Kafka’s interview with Ergen is well worth another watch:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130415/meet-charlie-ergen-the-guy-who-now-wants-to-buy-sprint/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/ http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:57:38 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=311854 Satellite provider Dish Network on Monday announced a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, countering a proposed deal from SoftBank.

The cash and stock deal would give Sprint owners $7 per share — $4.76 in cash, with the remainder in Dish stock.

“We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal,” Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said in a letter to Sprint’s board.

In addition to what it says are better financial terms, Dish also brings its own wireless spectrum holdings.

“The DISH proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,” Ergen said. “Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint with a significantly-enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.”

Sprint acknowledged that it had received the Dish offer and said only that the company’s board would “evaluate this proposal carefully and consistent with its fiduciary and legal duties.”

For Dish, the move would allow it to offer a combination of wireless service, in-home and on-the-go video, as well as broadband and voice service.

Dish, which has set up a website to tout its offer, promised some $11 billion in cost savings through its deal.

The move comes amid consolidation efforts that have included AT&T’s failed bid for T-Mobile, as well as T-Mobile’s current effort to acquire MetroPCS, which is due for a rescheduled shareholder vote on April 24.

Ahead of its Sprint bid, Dish had offered to buy Clearwire, the wireless network operator that Sprint is itself in the process of trying to buy.

Ergen said at our D: Dive Into Media event in February that Dish had hoped to have its own wireless network up and running by now, but that, given the delays, it would probably need to partner with someone already in the business.

Here’s Ergen’s full letter to Sprint’s board:

On behalf of DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”), I am submitting this proposal for a merger between DISH and Sprint Nextel Corporation (“Sprint”). Our proposal provides Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank Corporation (“SoftBank”) proposal. It provides more cash and affords your shareholders the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint, which will benefit from a significantly enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.

We are offering Sprint shareholders a total consideration of $25.5 billion, consisting of $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. Sprint shareholders would receive $7.00 per share, based upon DISH’s closing price on Friday, April 12, 2013. This consists of $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 DISH shares per Sprint share. The cash portion of our proposal represents an 18% premium over the $4.03 per share implied by the SoftBank proposal, and the equity portion represents approximately 32% ownership in the combined DISH/Sprint versus SoftBank’s proposal of a 30% interest in Sprint alone. Together this represents a 13% premium to the value of the existing SoftBank proposal.

Our proposal provides a highly-compelling and unique opportunity for Sprint shareholders. We are offering an ownership interest in a combined company with a comprehensive product and services suite, a significantly enhanced subscriber base, considerable financial and operating scale, as well as a spectrum portfolio that would lead the industry. As a result, this merger creates sizable cost and CAPEX savings and promises extensive new revenue opportunities.
Leveraging both companies’ existing assets and expertise, we will be the only company able to offer a fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services to meet rapidly evolving customer preferences. The new company’s assets will immediately establish national cross-platform leadership and will position the company to deliver innovative services while expanding our collective subscriber base.

The proposed combination will result in synergies and growth opportunities estimated at $37 billion in net present value. This includes an estimated $11 billion in cost savings, representing approximately $1.8 billion in annual run-rate cost synergies by the third year after closing.

Further, our combined national footprints and scale will allow us to efficiently develop our joint spectrum assets to provide advanced services to the millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services.
I am proud of the company we have built and believe we will be an excellent partner to Sprint. Like Sprint, DISH possesses a strong tradition of innovation and industry leadership. We created the third largest pay-TV provider while competing with incumbent cable monopolies and other entrenched operators. DISH has consistently led our industry in service and technology delivery with award-winning innovations like Hopper with Sling. Our history of value creation is outstanding. Investors in our 1995 initial public offering have enjoyed a total return of 27 times their original investment, significantly outperforming the broader markets and our peers. We also have a proven track record of responsible capital management.
DISH has significant experience structuring and consummating strategic transactions and only needs to complete confirmatory due diligence, which we believe can be done quickly with your cooperation. We have examined your merger agreement with SoftBank and we would be prepared to execute a definitive merger agreement on substantially similar terms and conditions. Though not a condition of our proposal, we anticipate that the pending transaction with Clearwire would be completed. We are confident that we can obtain all necessary approvals within a reasonable timeframe.

We intend to fund the $17.3 billion cash portion of the transaction using $8.2 billion of our balance sheet cash and additional debt financing. We have a proven track record in raising capital to fund strategic initiatives and have received a Highly Confident Letter from our financial advisor, Barclays, confirming our ability to raise the required financing.

We would be pleased to discuss our plans for the combined company and we are available at any time to meet with the Sprint Board, management and advisors to answer any questions about our proposed merger. We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal.
While it would have been our preference to have confidential discussions regarding this proposed merger, your existing agreement with SoftBank and the impending deadlines associated with your shareholder vote, will compel us to confirm our intentions publicly.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Very Truly Yours,
DISH Network Corporation
Charlie Ergen
Chairman

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130320/clearwire-shareholder-hires-proxy-firm-in-bid-to-stop-sprint-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20130320/clearwire-shareholder-hires-proxy-firm-in-bid-to-stop-sprint-deal/#comments Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:04:55 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=305224 Crest Financial said Wednesday that it has hired a proxy solicitation firm to aid in its opposition of Sprint’s plan to acquire the rest of Clearwire.

The Houston-based investment company owns 3.9 percent of Clearwire and has already sued Clearwire and its directors, arguing that they have breached their fiduciary duties in accepting Sprint’s offer.

The deal still requires the approval of shareholders representing a majority of the shares not held by Sprint. In hiring proxy-solicitation firm D. F. King & Co., Crest is signaling its intent to extend its opposition into a full-on proxy fight. Crest also demanded that Clearwire make available its list of shareholders.

“Crest Financial believes that Clearwire’s shareholders will reject Sprint’s unfair offer for Clearwire,” Crest general counsel Dave Schumacher said in a statement. “Crest is determined to do whatever it can to stop Sprint’s efforts to extract for itself the value of Clearwire’s trove of wireless spectrum and to harm minority shareholders and the public interest.”

Satellite TV company Dish Network has made its own bid for Clearwire, which holds a significant amount of spectrum in addition to operating a wholesale wireless network.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130320/clearwire-shareholder-hires-proxy-firm-in-bid-to-stop-sprint-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130228/espn-ordered-to-pay-dish-4-86-million/ http://allthingsd.com/20130228/espn-ordered-to-pay-dish-4-86-million/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:30:25 +0000 Chad Bray http://allthingsd.com/?p=299582 A federal jury in Manhattan ordered ESPN Inc. to pay Dish Network Corp. $4.86 million in damages in a dispute over licensing rates for sports broadcasts.

Dish Network alleged that the sports broadcaster violated an eight-year broadcast licensing agreement by offering more favorable rates to the satellite provider’s competitors. The agreement is set to expire later this year.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130228/espn-ordered-to-pay-dish-4-86-million/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130226/clearwire-to-tap-sprint-financing/ http://allthingsd.com/20130226/clearwire-to-tap-sprint-financing/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:59:33 +0000 Sharon Terlep and Joann S. Lublin http://allthingsd.com/?p=298838 Clearwire Corp. plans to tap financing made available by Sprint Nextel Corp., people familiar with the situation said Tuesday, in a move that further complicates Dish Network Corp.’s effort to buy the wireless broadband operator.

Dish has proposed buying Clearwire for $3.30 a share amid opposition among Clearwire shareholders to a deal in which Sprint would acquire the roughly half of Clearwire it doesn’t own for $2.97 a share.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130226/clearwire-to-tap-sprint-financing/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/ http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:39:44 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=298353 A significant Clearwire shareholder says its research shows that the company’s spectrum is worth two to three times what Sprint is offering in its takeover bid.

Crest Financial, which owns 8 percent of Clearwire’s Class A shares, says a study it commissioned from Information Age Economics confirms its position that Sprint’s offer of $2.97 per share undervalues the company.

Crest also argues in a regulatory filing with the Federal Communications Commission that the proposed deal runs contrary to the public interest, given the shortage of available spectrum.

“The merger would contradict the FCC’s stated mission to maximize spectrum availability for public consumption,” Crest said. “What’s more, it would place the country’s largest remaining spectrum portfolio in hands least equipped, by past example, to serve the best interests of the United States and its wireless consumers.”

In addition to its petitions to the FCC, Crest has sued to block the deal from going forward. Dish Network has made a rival bid for Clearwire, and asked regulators to hold off on their review of Sprint’s bid.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20130219/dish-networks-charlie-ergen-gets-real-the-full-dive-into-media-interview/ http://allthingsd.com/20130219/dish-networks-charlie-ergen-gets-real-the-full-dive-into-media-interview/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:26:02 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=296113 Last week, we hosted our second D: Dive Into Media conference in Dana Point, Calif. If you joined us in person, you got a day and a half to talk with and listen to the most interesting people in the media business as they spoke about the future of their industries. If you tuned in to our livestreams, you got a free, real-time sample of what that was like.

And if you missed the whole thing? Your loss!

But no worries: This week, we’ll start running complete videos of each of our onstage interviews and demos, so you can review them anytime you want. We’re kicking off today with Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, who rarely speaks in public, but sat down with us for an hour.

We’re so glad he did, because he has got one of the most interesting perspectives on the way technology is reshaping the TV business — and the ways that the TV business is stubbornly and successfully resisting change.

Some of this stuff parallels thoughts you’ve heard from other people — but usually not those with this much skin in the game. Ergen is a billionaire with the third-largest pay-TV business in America. So getting this stuff right matters a whole lot to him.

There’s a lot of great stuff in here. Like:

• Ergen’s assessment of his odds as he tries to grab Clearwire’s spectrum out of Sprint’s clutches (low), and why he’s taking on CBS and every other broadcaster with his ad-skipping Hopper DVR (both for leverage and because his customers want it).
• His explanation of why he bought Blockbuster (real estate) and why he failed to challenge Netflix (too late, too timid).
• His take on cord-cutting, which you never hear pay-TV bosses say out loud. (Yep, it’s real. And cord-nevers — kids like his who don’t have pay TV and never had — are even real-er.)
• What he thought of the Bloomberg Businessweek piece that described Dish as “The Meanest Company in America,” and whether his company’s work culture will let it compete with the likes of Google and Facebook. (Dish is not going to be supplying private buses for its workers anytime soon).

And the nice thing is that you get to sample as much, or as little, as you like. Enjoy, and come back for more over the next few weeks:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130219/dish-networks-charlie-ergen-gets-real-the-full-dive-into-media-interview/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130212/day-one-at-dive-into-media-2013-in-pictures-and-tweets/ http://allthingsd.com/20130212/day-one-at-dive-into-media-2013-in-pictures-and-tweets/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:30:34 +0000 Eric Johnson http://allthingsd.com/?p=294050 Greetings from Dana Point, Calif., where D: Dive Into Media 2013 is in full swing. We’ve been tweeting, Facebooking, Instagramming and Vining, and so have our wonderful attendees. Here’s what we (and they) saw at Day One of #DMedia:

But he will be followed, and in force — Tuesday’s guests include Hearst Magazines’ David Carey, Intel’s Erik Huggers, Google’s Nikesh Arora, Will Arnett, and Interscope Geffen’s Jimmy Iovine. So stay tuned!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130212/day-one-at-dive-into-media-2013-in-pictures-and-tweets/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20130124/listen-up-beats-boss-jimmy-iovine-comes-to-dive-into-media/ http://allthingsd.com/20130124/listen-up-beats-boss-jimmy-iovine-comes-to-dive-into-media/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:56:22 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=288284 We’re just a couple weeks away from our D: Dive into Media conference, but there’s always time to add an icon to the lineup: We’re very pleased to announce that music kingpin Jimmy Iovine will be joining us onstage.

Iovine is the studio engineer turned producer turned label executive turned headphone impressario, and he’s worked with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to U2 to Eminem to Lady Gaga. Current titles: Chairman, Interscope Records, and co-founder, Beats By Dre.

Those credentials alone would make him a fascinating interview, but now he has added another line to his resume: He’s trying to create a digital music subscription service with mass market appeal.

Lots of folks have tried this, but only Spotify seems to have had some success so far. Iovine thinks he can do much better, with a secret sauce that has something to do with a lot of curation and hand-holding.

That kind of confidence in your own taste-making ability runs counter to a lot of today’s digital ethos, which holds that people will figure out what they want to hear (or watch, or whatever) on their own, or with the help of friends, or with code. And Iovine thinks that’s bunk. So this should be a fun conversation!

And we’ll have a bunch of them next month. Here’s the lineup of speakers for Dive, which we’re holding Feb. 11 and 12 at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Calif: Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, Hearst Magazines president David Carey, Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora, Facebook partnership vice president Dan Rose, HBO co-President Eric Kessler, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen, Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith, Intel media head Erik Huggers and Samsung media head David Eun, Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos (and guests), New Republic owner Chris Hughes, USA Today publisher Larry Kramer, Dish Network founder Charlie Ergen, and Microsoft Xbox executives Yusuf Mehdi and Nancy Tellem.

Want to join them? Head here, and we’ll see you soon.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130124/listen-up-beats-boss-jimmy-iovine-comes-to-dive-into-media/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130122/dish-to-close-more-blockbuster-stores/ http://allthingsd.com/20130122/dish-to-close-more-blockbuster-stores/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:35:25 +0000 Shalini Ramachandran http://allthingsd.com/?p=287536 Dish Network Corp. plans to close a further 300 Blockbuster stores in the U.S. in the coming weeks, leaving the video chain with less than one-third of the stores acquired by the satellite-television company in 2011.

The closures will result in the layoffs of 3,000 employees, or about 40 percent of Blockbuster’s workforce of 7,300, a spokesman for Dish said Tuesday.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130122/dish-to-close-more-blockbuster-stores/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/ http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:56:32 +0000 Thomas Gryta http://allthingsd.com/?p=286622 Dish Network Corp. has asked the Federal Communications Commission to halt the regulatory-review “shot clock” for Softbank Corp.’s plans to buy a 70 percent stake in Sprint Nextel Corp. for $20 billion.

In the filing, posted Thursday, Dish said many issues are unresolved in the acquisition review, which includes Sprint’s deal to buy the rest of majority-owned Clearwire Corp. Dish recently proposed a $3.30-a-share offer for Clearwire, above Sprint’s agreement to pay $2.97 a share, and says that uncertainty surrounding process could lead to major amendments to the Sprint/Softbank review.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130114/cbs-quashes-cnet-award-for-dishs-ad-skipping-dvr/ http://allthingsd.com/20130114/cbs-quashes-cnet-award-for-dishs-ad-skipping-dvr/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:38:55 +0000 Keach Hagey http://allthingsd.com/?p=285348 CNET disclosed Monday that it had originally picked Dish Network Corp.’s controversial ad-skipping device to receive its top award at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, before CNET’s parent company, CBS Corp, forced it to reverse course.

The revelation came just hours after CNET senior writer Greg Sandoval quit in protest at the episode, taking to Twitter to say that he no longer had “confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence.” Mr. Sandoval, reached by cellphone declined to comment further, saying only that “everything on Twitter is accurate.”

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130114/cbs-quashes-cnet-award-for-dishs-ad-skipping-dvr/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130110/cnet-wanders-into-the-cbs-dish-crossfire-at-ces/ http://allthingsd.com/20130110/cnet-wanders-into-the-cbs-dish-crossfire-at-ces/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:55:09 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=284441 Nice gadget. Bad company!

That’s the message CBS and its CNET technology site have managed to send today, by banning a Dish Network device from a CES award competition.

This one isn’t a huge deal, but it’s an interesting one, because it shows just how annoyed the TV networks are with Charlie Ergen and the moves he’s making to shake up, if not blow up, their business.

The story: Last year, Ergen’s Dish introduced “The Hopper,” a DVR whose features include the ability to auto-forward past ads. TV programmers, including CBS, aren’t happy about the gadget, and have taken Dish to court.

This year, Dish used CES to roll out a new version of the gadget, which might also tick off the TV guys. But the reviewers at CNET seemed to like it, describing it as “cutting-edge stuff” that “helps Dish make a strong case that its HD DVR is the most advanced out there.”

That was Monday. Yesterday, CNET announced that the new gadget was up for a “Best of CES” award the website oversees. But today comes word that the device got the boot, due to the lawsuit.

Here’s CNET’s statement, which it has also appended to its original review:

The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration for the Best of CES 2013 awards due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp. We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product.

Dish, in turn, says it is “disappointed” with CNET/CBS’ call.

But it’s hard not to detect a bunch of “this is the best publicity we could have asked for” glee in the satellite guys’ press release. It comes packed with links to reviews, Tweets, photos and other material that make it easy to construct a post just like this one.

Here’s Dish CEO Joe Clayton’s statement. Kind of imagine him and his PR folks high-fiving as they hit “send” on this one:

We are saddened that CNET’s staff is being denied its editorial independence because of CBS’ heavy-handed tactics. This action has nothing to do with the merits of our new product. Hopper with Sling is all about consumer choice and control over the TV experience. That CBS, which owns CNET.com, would censor that message is insulting to consumers. DISH is not afraid to stand up for consumer rights and we think that Hopper with Sling will do well, despite the network’s questionable actions. We have had a long, productive relationship with CNET’s editorial staff and we look forward to continuing that relationship. We welcome their unbiased evaluation and commentary of our products and services.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130110/cnet-wanders-into-the-cbs-dish-crossfire-at-ces/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130110/in-clearwire-gambit-spectrum-is-the-prize/ http://allthingsd.com/20130110/in-clearwire-gambit-spectrum-is-the-prize/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:30 +0000 Anton Troianovski, Shalini Ramachandran and Anupreeta Das http://allthingsd.com/?p=284167 Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish Network Corp., is in a familiar position: He can win even by losing.

Mr. Ergen’s attempt to snatch wireless provider Clearwire Corp. out of the hands of its current merger partner, Sprint Nextel Corp., is just his latest move in a long chess match. The endgame: to get access to the spectrum and network assets needed to deliver wireless service and even video over the air.

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