Word: murdoch
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...they're going to try to do it with satellite. Why? Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier settled on EchoStar-Hughes (which owns DirecTV) for the same reason Rupert Murdoch wanted Hughes before EchoStar moved in. Most of the nation's cable lines are in the hands of rivals like AOL Time Warner (parent company of this writer) and half-rivals like AT&T Broadband and Comcast who have plenty of content-distribution deals already inked - making reasonably priced access via cable into the U.S. couch-potato market hard to find. Making EchoStar-DirecTV and its control of 90 percent...
...might hurry up with long-promised goodies like (Warner Brothers) movies on demand (in Time Warner cable homes). Or Cablevision, which raised rates in suburban New York by 12 percent last year alone, might slow down on the price hikes. Or they might both sic their lobbyists on Washington - Murdoch will come along for the ride - and bust up the EchoStar-DirecTV union, putting satellite TV back in infighting mode and Vivendi back in the U.S.-distribution minor leagues...
...RUPERT MURDOCH runs NEWS CORP., a $43 billion conglomerate that includes the Fox movie studio and TV network; satellite-TV services in Asia, Europe and Latin America; sports teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers; and newspapers in Australia, Britain and the U.S. Born in Australia, Murdoch, 70, is equally at home in London and New York City and makes sure his conservative political views are reflected in his media properties. His latest bid for influence: expanding his satellite-TV service in China. Murdoch is also busy positioning his sons to succeed him at the helm of the family business...
DirecTV has been an elusive prize for Murdoch. Hughes chairman Michael Smith long spurned his advances, an impediment that disappeared in May when Smith did: he was recently replaced by Harry Pearce, a top GM executive seen as sympathetic to Murdoch's bid. Just when the deal seemed imminent, though, Ergen made his play...
...Murdoch has several factors in his favor, beyond possibly friendly management at Hughes. With two deep-pocketed backers behind him, Microsoft and Liberty Cable's John Malone, Murdoch could hand over as much as $7 billion in cash. In mergers and acquisitions, cash is king. (Ergen has said he would consider adding some cash.) Most significant, there's considerable skepticism in the industry that antitrust regulators would let Ergen combine the nation's two largest satellite companies...