Breakingviews: Dish boss may play part of AT&T deal spoilsport

Published Thu, Nov 17 20165:07 PM EST

Breakingviews

Jennifer Saba

It's a good bet that the poker-playing boss of Dish Network will be the spoilsport for AT & T' s mega-merger with Time Warner . Consumer advocates and antitrust academics often influence telecom transactions, but corporate foils have clout, too. Charlie Ergen and his satellite-TV company are the most likely candidates to step into the role filled by Netflix and Sprint on other recent deals. More from Breakingviews : JPMorgan payout would put princelings in context Dish already is famous for its carriage-fee disputes that frequently spiral into blackouts. The latest one involved Tribune Media, which only reached a settlement after its stations were knocked off Ergen's system for three months. The ad-skipping feature on Dish's set-top box also has brought litigation from broadcasters CBS , NBC and others. The $25 billion U.S. pay-TV operator also has squawked in Washington before. Dish filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission last year to block Charter Communications' $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. It unsuccessfully argued that it would be no better for the public than an earlier attempted sale of the cable operator to larger rival Comcast, a deal Netflix boss Reed Hastings had a hand in derailing. Ergen was louder and more persuasive when SoftBank attempted to take control of Sprint after Dish dropped its own bid. He argued that allowing a foreign company to buy a wireless operator would be a threat to national security. The sale ultimately was approved in 2013 by U.S. regulators, but not before conditions were imposed that allowed the Defense Department and other agencies to review and block Sprint's new equipment purchases in certain circumstances. AT & T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, meanwhile, had seen his own mobile consolidation efforts thwarted by Sprint, which orchestrated a heavy lobbying effort against the effort to buy T-Mobile US for $39 billion in 2011. Stephenson reckons he has a clearer path this time because Time Warner isn't a direct competitor. While true, AT & T also faces political and populist wariness of swelling conglomerates, uncertainty about the line U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's administration will take on big mergers as well as the possibility that his fast-moving industry encounters fresh interpretation of antitrust laws. All the usual suspects will be beating down the doors of regulators with their complaints. Most big deals draw a corporate wild card, however. AT & T's is apt to be Ergen. For more independent commentary and analysis from Reuters Breakingviews, visit breakingviews.com

Charlie Ergen

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