Satellite TV broadcaster DirecTV has threatened to pull its offer to buy Dish TV from EchoStar if it fails to complete a debt-exchange offer, while Charter Communications on Wednesday said it will buy its largest shareholder, Liberty Broadband, in an all-stock deal.
Media and cable TV industry pioneer John Malone controls both Charter and Liberty Broadband. Liberty took a $2.62 billion stake in Charter, worth about 27% of the company at the time, in 2013.
Charter will also assume responsibility for Liberty's roughly $2.6 billion in existing debt.
On the stock market today, Charter stock rose more than 2% to 401.80. Meanwhile, after falling nearly 13% on Tuesday, EchoStar stock fell more than 2% to 22.14 early Wednesday.
A group of Dish bondholders who are owed some $10 billion on Tuesday rejected a debt-exchange offer that would have cleared the way for DirecTV's purchase of the company. That led DirecTV, controlled by investment firm TPG Capital, on Tuesday to threaten to pull its offer by Nov. 22.
EchoStar Stock: Dish Deal In Peril
It's still possible EchoStar and the Dish bondholders will restart negotiations.
AT&T stock on Wednesday rose 0.6% to 22.29. In August, AT&T agreed to sell its remaining 70% stake in DirecTV to TPG for about $7.6 billion.
That deal anticipated that TPG-owned DirecTV would acquire EchoStar's video distribution business, including Dish TV and the streaming service Sling TV.
TPG agreed to pay just $1 for EchoStar's video business, but would have assumed $9.8 billion in debt.
AT&T stock has an entry point of 22.34 from a three-weeks-tight base. Meanwhile, AT&T hosts an investor day on Dec. 3 to update financial goals.
Craig Moffett, analyst at MoffettNathanson, said in a report that "irrespective of completion of the DirecTV deal," TPG has agreed to provide a $2.45 billion loan to EchoStar, which Tuesday also closed a $5.2 billion spectrum-backed debt deal to fund its wireless network build-out.
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