NEW YORK, June 26, 2026, 10:01 EDT
- EchoStar’s new ECHO ticker debuted this week. Shares dropped 6.5% across the first two full sessions as ECHO.
- Based on Friday’s early trading, AT&T’s upcoming net cash proceeds make up roughly 71% of EchoStar’s implied equity value.
- SpaceX’s inclusion in the Russell index is important for EchoStar. Part of its spectrum deal is linked to SpaceX shares.
- EchoStar swapped its top legal officer a day after changing its ticker to ECHO.
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:ECHO) added 1.7% to $98.84 early Friday on Nasdaq, taking back some of the ground lost after changing its ticker from SATS. The stock had ended June 23 at $103.92, its last full day as SATS, then dropped to $97.19 by June 25, off 6.5% after two sessions as ECHO. Trading volumes reached 8.74 million shares June 24 and 8.71 million June 25, both lower than the 11.74 million traded June 23.
EchoStar’s new ticker went live June 24. The company said its CUSIP number didn’t change, so holders don’t have to do anything. “Changing our stock ticker to ‘ECHO’ represents our growth from a pure-play satellite company to a global corporate leader with a diverse set of connectivity assets,” founder, CEO and chairman Charlie Ergen said in a statement. EchoStar Corporation
EchoStar’s stock reset goes well beyond swapping out the name. At $98.84 a share and using 289.014 million weighted-average Class A and B shares from Q1, EchoStar gets an implied market cap of around $28.6 billion. The $20.25 billion in net closing proceeds expected from AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is about 71% of that number, making the close date a clear stock issue, not a minor balance-sheet item.
EchoStar’s DISH DBS unit said June 18 it will pay interest that was due June 1 within the 30-day grace period. EchoStar had delayed those payments as it waited for cash from the AT&T deals. The company said both the FCC and Justice Department cleared the AT&T transactions but they still have closing conditions remaining.
FCC clears EchoStar’s $40B spectrum deals; company balks at escrow requirement
The FCC last month gave the green light to EchoStar’s $40 billion in spectrum sales: 50 MHz goes to AT&T for $23 billion, and 65 MHz to SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) for $17 billion. Regulators also told EchoStar to put $2.4 billion in escrow, covering disputes over license work. EchoStar called the escrow an “unprecedented involuntary escrow condition” and said it’s weighing what to do next. Reuters
EchoStar added a second market-sensitive asset with the SpaceX deal. The agreement gives EchoStar up to $8.5 billion in cash and another $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, and SpaceX will cover about $2 billion in EchoStar debt interest payments through November 2027. Boost Mobile users will also get access to Starlink Direct to Cell service.
Friday’s SpaceX trade matters for EchoStar. SpaceX will be added to the Russell U.S. indexes after the close. Jefferies figures passive trackers have to buy close to $3 billion in SpaceX stock. Reuters said only about $100 billion of SpaceX shares are actually in the float, while its market cap is near $2 trillion. That kind of structure can make it tough for index buys to get what they need.
“The options activity has gotten more balanced. It’s not as completely euphoric as it was day one,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Reuters this week. Stock swings after an IPO aren’t a surprise, JJ Kinahan at Cboe Global Markets said, calling the moves “not totally unexpected” for these first weeks. Reuters
EchoStar EchoStar Corporation says Dean Manson, its chief legal officer and secretary, is leaving effective June 26. Manson spent 26 years at EchoStar and Hughes Network Systems. Jeffrey Blum, executive vice president of government affairs, will take on the job on an interim basis as EchoStar looks for a permanent hire. This gives holders another item to watch.
