DirecTV-Dish Merger Still 'Problematic'

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said Monday that although a DirecTV-Dish Network merger would be "very synergistic," it would still face problems winning regulatory approval. Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said that regulatory approval of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Holdings would not make a DirecTV-Dish Network merger any more likely to pass muster in Washington. "As far as Dish and DTV (DirecTV), I'm not sure exactly why that got such a round of enthusiastic media/investor attention over the last two, three weeks," Maffei said. "There really hasn't been anything that's occurred or changed the market conditions, other than potentially some people projecting on the impact or the foretelling of a Sirius-XM merger and what it might mean. I don't know what's changed, or whether that could be done. Obviously, there are a ton of synergies out there. That deal had challenges once. Whether it could be done today in a different environment, I don't know enough about."