Overview

• People familiar with the matter say discussions focus on EchoStar’s AWS-3 licenses, which are prized for 5G use.
• EchoStar recently agreed to sell large blocks of spectrum to AT&T for about $23 billion and to SpaceX for roughly $17 billion, with the latter split between up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in stock.
• The company began selling airwave rights to help fend off bankruptcy risk and to address an FCC probe into whether it moved quickly enough to deploy its spectrum.
• EchoStar assigns a $9.8 billion carrying value to its spectrum holdings, and a potential Verizon deal may price below that figure, according to the reporting.
• CEO Hamid Akhavan has said the company will keep monetizing spectrum rather than build a full nationwide network, and shares rose about 2.8% Tuesday morning.