EchoStar coming out ahead, say analysts

As I mentioned in an earlier post AT&T/BellSouth merger's impact on satellite, satellite providers have a lot at stake in the possible merger of AT&T and BellSouth. According to the article EchoStar seen as a winner in AT&T's BellSouth deal, it looks like EchoStar will benefit more from the deal than its competitor DIRECTV. Although BellSouth has a multi-year contract with DIRECTV, it is expected that after the merger AT&T will not continue that partnership with DIRECTV. Instead, analyst expect that AT&T will bundle its services with its existing satellite partner, EchoStar - making EchoStar the satellite winner of this deal if all goes through as expected.