AT&T / Dish: Acquisition Unlikely

Dish Network (DISH) disclosed in an SEC filing late yesterday that an AT&T (T) subsidiary called Gateway Rivers Insurance has exercised its right to put back to DISH a $500 million convertible note due July 21, 2010. The note has a strike price of $60.25 a share, well above the current price of DISH shares. DISH says it has enough cash to buy back the note without conducting a financing.

Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett suggest that this could be “the final nail in the coffin” to talk that AT&T might want to buy DISH. “The announcement throws yet more cold water on the lingering speculation that AT&T may soon acquire Dish Network,” he writes. “Publicly exercising a put option and unwinding a financial interest is more akin to beginning divorce proceedings that it is to the start of a mating dance.”