[roxrobin]

The following teaser was contained in an email flyer from the NY Times. If anyone has a WSJ subscription, it would be interesting to know what the article might indicate.


What is General Motors' board to do? The company may meet as

early as this weekend to finally seal a deal to sell Hughes

to either News Corp. or EchoStar, The Wall Street Journal's

Heard on The Street column said. Which suitor it will choose

is still up in the air.


Go to Article from The Wall Street Journal (Subscription

Required):
http://interactive.wsj.com/pages/money.htm

 

[Jerry G]

Why not just wait until it happens and then everyone will know?

 

[roxrobin]

Well, obviously Jerry doesn't........and obviously I don't,.........., but does anyone else out there have a subscription to the WSJ to be able to summarize the article for those who might want to know?

 

[Alan Sh]

You can find a discussion of this article here .


The teaser was a good summary. The Hughes conference call had indicated that a decision was near and this article mentions a date as early as this weekend. A question by an analyst in the conference call was probing whether or not Echostar chances looked better and this article seems to say it is a tossup.


"Money: By just about any financial measure, the EchoStar proposal is superior to News Corp.'s offer. "


"Regulators:....and the regulatory risk of an EchoStar deal remains perhaps the biggest stumbling block."


"Personalities:.....In most business dealings with News Corp., negotiators worry about Mr. Murdoch,.....Mr. Ergen's reputation as unpredictable has GM more worried ....."