Echostar

Dish Network Corp. and its former EchoStar division agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle a long-running patent dispute involving digital video recorder technology. Under terms of the settlement, Dish Network and EchoStar Corp. will make an initial payment of $300 million, and then make six equal payments of $33 million through 2017. The companies agreed to dismiss any litigation connected with the matter. "There have been all kinds of questions and uncertainty as to whether our intellectual property had any real value," said TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers.

Charlie Ergen, the fiery leader of satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp., is relinquishing his position as chief executive and president at the company he founded and has tightly controlled for more than 30 years. Joe Clayton, a former head of satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Radio Inc. who has become close to Ergen since joining the board of Dish's sibling company EchoStar in 2008, will assume his duties. Meanwhile, Ergen will retain his role as chairman. "There's a lot to say grace over on a daily operational basis here," Clayton said in an interview.

EchoStar Corp. is pairing up with MVS Comunicaciones to form Dish Mexico. The new satellite television company will take on Sky, owned largely by Mexican media giant Televisa. Sky has had little competition from other satellite television providers since DirecTV Group Inc. pulled out of Mexico four years ago. DirecTV now owns 41% of Sky Mexico. Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar says the new company will allow it to enter the Mexican market. Dish will launch first in the cities of Puebla and Leon.

Dish Network Corp. and its former EchoStar division agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle a long-running patent dispute involving digital video recorder technology. Under terms of the settlement, Dish Network and EchoStar Corp. will make an initial payment of $300 million, and then make six equal payments of $33 million through 2017. The companies agreed to dismiss any litigation connected with the matter. "There have been all kinds of questions and uncertainty as to whether our intellectual property had any real value," said TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers.

EchoStar Communications Corp., the No. 2 U.S. satellite-television company, reached an agreement with Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. and OpenTV Corp. to sell Internet connections and other new services. OpenTV, the largest maker of software for digital TV, will pay 2.25 million shares, valued at $373 million, for EchoStar to sell its satellite receiver that lets customers pause and rewind live programs. Financial terms with Gilat, a satellite equipment maker based in Israel, weren't disclosed.

Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. said they filed a lawsuit asking for a ruling that their new digital video recorder software doesn't infringe a TiVo Inc. patent. TiVo won an appeals court ruling that older versions of the software violated the patent, and it is seeking a ruling in Texas that Dish is in contempt of an order to stop using the TiVo technology.

Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. asked a federal appeals court to throw out a judge's order that the companies stop using a digital-video recording service that he said infringed a TiVo Inc. patent. Attorneys for Dish, the second-biggest U.S. satellite-television provider, tried to convince a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington that it had changed its technology enough to no longer infringe TiVo's patent. TiVo said the changes were insufficient.

Charlie Ergen, the fiery leader of satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp., is relinquishing his position as chief executive and president at the company he founded and has tightly controlled for more than 30 years. Joe Clayton, a former head of satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Radio Inc. who has become close to Ergen since joining the board of Dish's sibling company EchoStar in 2008, will assume his duties. Meanwhile, Ergen will retain his role as chairman. "There's a lot to say grace over on a daily operational basis here," Clayton said in an interview.

DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S. satellite-television provider, is in talks with Sirius XM Radio Inc. about a possible deal, according to people close to the situation. An accord may help prevent Sirius XM from seeking bankruptcy protection or agreeing to a deal with satellite company EchoStar Corp. less than a year after Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin completed the merger of the only two U.S. pay-radio providers. Sirius XM has $3.25 billion in total debt and has until Tuesday to repay $175 million in bonds held by EchoStar.

I read with interest your article regarding the Hughes-EchoStar merger, and the speculation of a management-led buyout of DirecTV if federal regulators fail to approve the merger. The focus of the management team of Hughes and its operating businesses is to successfully complete the merger with EchoStar and to operate our company as efficiently and competitively as we can. DirecTV President Roxanne Austin has denied statements in your article, attributed to "sources," that she has indicated to her top leadership team that a DirecTV management buyout is a possibility if the merger is not approved.

Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. asked a federal appeals court to throw out a judge's order that the companies stop using a digital-video recording service that he said infringed a TiVo Inc. patent. Attorneys for Dish, the second-biggest U.S. satellite-television provider, tried to convince a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington that it had changed its technology enough to no longer infringe TiVo's patent. TiVo said the changes were insufficient.

AUTOMOBILES GM gets OK to buy some Delphi assets General Motors Co. said it has received permission to use $2.8 billion of its government aid to help buy part of troubled auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., the automaker's former parts division. The automaker said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the Treasury Department granted the release of $1.7 billion to acquire "a membership interest" in the new Delphi that emerged from bankruptcy protection.

DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S. satellite-television provider, is in talks with Sirius XM Radio Inc. about a possible deal, according to people close to the situation. An accord may help prevent Sirius XM from seeking bankruptcy protection or agreeing to a deal with satellite company EchoStar Corp. less than a year after Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin completed the merger of the only two U.S. pay-radio providers. Sirius XM has $3.25 billion in total debt and has until Tuesday to repay $175 million in bonds held by EchoStar.

EchoStar Corp. is pairing up with MVS Comunicaciones to form Dish Mexico. The new satellite television company will take on Sky, owned largely by Mexican media giant Televisa. Sky has had little competition from other satellite television providers since DirecTV Group Inc. pulled out of Mexico four years ago. DirecTV now owns 41% of Sky Mexico. Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar says the new company will allow it to enter the Mexican market. Dish will launch first in the cities of Puebla and Leon.

Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. said they filed a lawsuit asking for a ruling that their new digital video recorder software doesn't infringe a TiVo Inc. patent. TiVo won an appeals court ruling that older versions of the software violated the patent, and it is seeking a ruling in Texas that Dish is in contempt of an order to stop using the TiVo technology.

EchoStar Holding Corp. said Dean Olmstead, a recognized leader in the satellite industry, would join the company as president of satellite services. Olmstead will report to Charles W. Ergen, chairman and chief executive of EchoStar Holding, which was recently spun off from EchoStar Communications Corp., owner of the Dish Network satellite TV service. The new company holds certain satellites, uplink and satellite transmission assets and the digital set-top box formerly held by EchoStar Communications.