[Satellite TODAY Insider 03-21-11] Dish Network received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court to acquire hybrid S-band service provider DBSD North America, Dish Network announced March 17.
    The court’s approval follows a Dish Network announcement in February that it placed a bid for DSBD for about $1 billion. Harbinger Capital Partners and Solus Alternative Asset Management then placed bids at about $1.14 billion for the bankrupt and reorganizing S-band provider, forcing Dish to increase its bid to $1.4 billion.
    Dish Network will provide $325 million more to DBSD’s parent company, Ico Global Communications, and remain committed to DBSD for another $87.5 million as debtor-in-possession credit facility.
    It will be interesting to see how Dish Network and sister company EchoStar integrate DBSD’s assets after EchoStar acquired Hughes Communications and its subsidiaries for about $2 billion in February. The acquisition provides Dish Network with DBSD’s highly sought-after S-band spectrum for wireless and wireline communications to compliment its 700 MHz wireless frequency slot. Dish Network and EchoStar have said the spectrums could be combined to develop a viable pay-TV distribution network or be leased to telecom operators.
    Speaking on a SATELLITE 2011 financial panel, White and Case Counsel Maury Mechanick cited Harbinger’s efforts to acquire DBSD in a debate about whether or not the U.S. government would allow a single entity to control both S- and L-band assets over the United States. “We hope to realize who will control the rights to the S-band spectrum, as nobody really knows at this point. We also ask ourselves how many companies will be involved in the sector at the end of the year and whether or not a single company, like Harbinger Capital, will be permitted to control S-band and L-band in the United States.”

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