Shares of Dish Network fell as much as 8.7% in pre-market trading on Monday after the company reported a net loss of $139 million, or a diluted loss of 26 cents per share, on revenue of $3.7 billion for its third quarter of 2023.
Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were expecting the company to report earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue of $3.85 billion.
The satellite television giant shed 64,000 pay TV subscribers during the quarter for a total of 8.84 million. Dish TV subscribers fell by 181,000 to 6.72 million, while Sling TV subscribers increased by around 117,000 to 2.12 million. Meanwhile, the company lost 225,000 wireless subscribers for a total of 7.5 million.
“We continue to experience increased competition, including competition from other subscription video on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers, many of which are providers of our content and offer football and other seasonal sports programming direct to subscribers on an a la carte basis,” the company wrote in its 10-Q filing.
In August, Dish announced it was recombining with EchoStar, the satellite and broadband services company it spun off in 2008. The all-stock deal will see EchoStar shareholders get 2.85 shares of Dish for each share they own, which represents a premium of 12.9% to EchoStar stockholders based on the closing stock prices of the two companies on July 5.
When the deal is complete, existing Dish Network shareholders will own roughly 69% and existing EchoStar shareholders approximately 31% of the combined company.
EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan will serve as CEO of the combined company. Erik Carlson intends to resign from his position as Dish’s president and CEO, effective Nov. 12. He will remain on the company’s board of directors through the closing of the transaction.
The new board of directors of the combined company will include 11 members, seven Dish directors, three EchoStar independent directors and Akhavan.
In addition, Dish is selling its spectrum assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and approximately 120,000 prepaid mobile subscribers in those markets to Liberty Latin America in exchange for cash and international roaming credits.
“This transaction will enhance competition within the wireless market in Puerto Rico and the USVI, while providing DISH with additional capital to focus on our wireless business in the United States,” Dish’s executive vice president of corporate development Tom Cullen said in a statement.
The deal, which is worth approximately $256 million, is expected to close next year.
