Dish amasses $10B cash pile as questions swirl over its plans

Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) now has a record $10 billion in cash in hand, about as much as oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil, according to Bloomberg, and no one in the industry really seems to know what Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen plans to do with all the money. Dish has declined to comment. The issue has caught steam following Dish's recent announcement that it had priced a debt offering of $2.3 billion and said the proceeds could be used for "wireless and spectrum-related strategic transactions." Dish raised $1.5 billion in December for similar reasons. Dish, which has made a conditional offer to Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR), could use the money in some kind of merger with rival DirecTV, or to build out its planned LTE Advanced network. Others speculate that Dish could try to steal MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) away from Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile. "The question remains: What are they going to do with this ample liquidity?" S&P analyst Tuna Amobi told Bloomberg. "I wouldn't rule out anything, really, knowing Charlie." Article