Dish’s Ergen Keeps Rivals Guessing

Charles Ergen's maneuvering just cost rival SoftBank $1.5 billion by forcing it to raise its offer for Sprint Nextel. But the question remains, is that a victory for the Dish Network chairman, or a defeat?

Ergen's knack for being famously hard to read left Wall Street and the telecom industry guessing his next move. Would Ergen try to convince Sprint shareholders a tie-up with Dish still offers a better deal? Would he sweeten Dish's bid for Sprint? Would he turn to another telecom target? Whoever prevails in the deal for Sprint—and at what price—could help reshape a U.S. mobile-phone industry that is increasingly central to how Americans communicate, work and entertain themselves. Dish, meantime, is fighting to remake itself and tap growing demand for wireless broadband service as the pay-TV market stagnates. Ergen is still in a powerful position as he seeks to disrupt the US wireless market. He has amassed a large trove of unused spectrum and is still on the hunt for more. He has spent billions of dollars buying the airwaves that carry wireless data, and estimates the value of his spectrum assets at more than $8 billion.