Dish Network announced that current President and CEO Joseph Clayton is set to retire his positions as well as his seat on the company’s board effective March 31. Dish Network’s controversial co-founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen is set to assume the president and CEO positions.
Prior to his executive stints at Dish, Clayton served as chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio from 2004 to 2008, and prior to that as CEO at Sirius from 2001 to 2004.
Ergen, who also currently serves as chairman at EchoStar, is set to retake the president and CEO roles he relinquished to Clayton in 2011, which he did in order to “focus on long-term business development and acquisition tactics in an effort to reach new markets, expand product and service offerings and bolster the company’s customer base.”
Ergen also headed up Dish Network’s recent wireless spectrum grab, which included the company acquiring all 176 H-Block licenses for $1.5 billion during the government’s Auction 96 last year, as well as spending $10 billion earlier this year during Auction 97. Those latest efforts drew the ire of many that questioned Dish Network’s bidding practices.
With Ergen at the helm, Dish Network has been somewhat of a disruptor in the wireless telecommunications space. Dish Network attempted to acquire a stake in Clearwire and Sprint before Sprint managed to acquire all of Clearwire and Japan’s Softbank acquired a controlling stake in Sprint.
Ergen has also been vocal in speaking with established telecom operators. Post Auction 97, Dish Network was said to be in control of an average of 81 megahertz of spectrum across the nation’s top 100 markets, with none of that spectrum currently supporting wireless telecom services.
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