Dish Network Completes $1.4B Boost Mobile Acquisition

Dish Network Corp. (DISH) has announced yesterday the completion of its $1.4 billion acquisition of Boost Mobile making it the nation’s newest wireless carrier.

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Dish will acquire Boost Mobile’s 9 million customers who are pre-paid subscribers. The deal results from the T-Mobile-Sprint (TMUS) merger that required an agreement from Sprint to divest its subsidiary Boost Mobile, due to the Federal Communications Commission’s fears of unfair competition. By comparison, the other three big carriers each have over 100 million customers.

Shares in Dish were flat at $34.63 as of market close on Wednesday.

“Today, we are proud to welcome hundreds of employees, thousands of independent retailers, and millions of customers to the Dish family,” said Erik Carlson, President and CEO of Dish. Carlson adds that the deal contains a seven-year access agreement to T-Mobile’s network while Dish launches the “first virtualized, standalone 5G network in America.”

Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins reiterated yesterday a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $39, implying 13% upside potential. He expects Dish to post earnings per share of $0.14 for the second quarter of 2020.

Additionally, SunTrust analyst Gregory Miller on June 12, maintained a Buy rating and raised the price from $23 to $30 but with a downside potential of 13.36%. He noted that certain equipment costs will be eliminated with the deployment of 5G.

Dish’s stock is down 2% year-to-date with 4 analysts assigning Buy ratings, 5 with Hold ratings, and 2 Sell ratings which altogether results in a consensus of Hold. The average analyst price target stands at $37.60 (9% upside potential). (See Dish’s stock analysis on TipRanks)