Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen says he may sell his entire company if a deal with Sprint doesn’t come to fruition.
Ergen has made a $25.5 billion bid for the mobile empire — more than Softbank’s rival bid of $20 billion.
Sprint and Dish, however, are in a tug of war over whether Dish gets to do due diligence before it reveals the full details of its offer.
Ergen wants to merge his pay-TV company with the mobile phone operation in order to hedge against a decline in the mature domestic pay-TV business.
On a call with analysts and media yesterday, Ergen said: “If we’re unsuccessful with Sprint, obviously we have a lot of options,” including “selling spectrum.”
Ergen said options could range all the way to selling the whole company or partnering with some other company in the wireless business.
The brash executive said he expects SoftBank to increase its bid, but he was nevertheless confident in Dish’s offer.
He admitted on the call he isn’t a Sprint user because, “it has a coverage problem.”
Much of Ergen’s satellite business serves rural communities that aren’t covered by Sprint’s network.
Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker believes that Ergen had meetings earlier this week with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim — who could be a partner on the Sprint bid.
Slim and Ergen have a satellite joint venture in Mexico.
Dish reps had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Dish reported a tough first quarter, with profits falling to $216 million, ior 47 cents a share, from $360 million, or 80 cents.
Revenue fell slightly to $3.56 billion on issues at its Blockbuster unit.
Dish ended the period with 14.09 million subscribers after adding 36,000 net additions for the quarter.
Dish shares closed yesterday at $38.80, down 2 percent.