Dish’s Finicky CEO Is Wild Card in T-Mobile Talks

As Dish Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen discusses a possible $57 billion deal with wireless carrier T-Mobile US, Wall Street is wondering: Is this the time he will play out his hand?

There may be 60 billion reasons for Ergen, 62 years old, to get the deal done. He has spent the past several years amassing a trove of wireless licenses valued in the ballpark of $60 billion, according to New Street Research. They have to be put to use before 2021, but Dish can’t do that without a cellular network. The industrial logic of joining forces with T-Mobile—which operates the No. 4 US cellular carrier by subscribers—is crystal clear. The added benefit for Dish: It would give the company a path to selling competitive broadband service at a time when the traditional pay-TV business is contracting. Dish itself lost 134,000 satellite-TV customers last quarter alone. Of all the recent deals Ergen has tried to pursue, “this is the one with the most promise,” said Jimmy Schaeffler, a longtime acquaintance of Ergen who leads Carmel Group, a consultancy. “I think at this point he is going to be a groom and is going to have a successful marriage in part because of his growth and his maturity.”