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Technology Stocks : Echostar Comm. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Noel who wrote (797)	5/12/1998 5:56:00 PM
From: Goodboy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1394

It ain't over til it's over. DOJ wins round one. I was wrong on that prediction. I thought the FCC would be the deal stopper. The DOJ case is not very strong and they may yet create a consent decree to allow this deal rather than litigate this issue ( their plate is rather full and this deal is puny compared with others currently pending). I plan to read the complaint tommorow and will see if it is as weak as Mr. Klein's reasoning in his press conference. If so, this is a tremendous buying opportunity in TSATA. As of this moment, this is a positive for Echo and Direct TV. The problem is that if it is a positive for them, than it is not anti-trust and anti-consumer. There is no third player to enter the field and the FCC is on record that no one company should control more than 50% of the full-conus slots for high power DBS. That means Mr. Klein's suggestion that the slot go to Echo or Direct TV is not only uninformed, but against the explicit policy of the FCC (the agency primarily responsible for regulating this area). This is not a final decision, just posturing by the DOJ for political reasons or to put pressure on Primestar to give up more in the consent decree. I would wait for the Primestar response to the lawsuit before popping any champagne.