| To: Ken Conaway who wrote () | 2/25/1997 11:07:00 AM | | From: Blake Thompson | | | |
I have been in USSB for several months now as I caught it at a low point at about 10. This new deal with DISH and News Corp seems to pose a formidable competitor to USSB. So far the implications have been sustained as USSB was up early riding the DISH wave. Does anyone know what this new deal is going to do to USSB and its future subscriptions? The news said that the new company Sky will begin major activity later in the year. I guess all we can hope for is another big-time company to pick up USSB.
Blake T. |
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| To: Blake Thompson who wrote (22) | 2/27/1997 8:30:00 AM | | From: Doug Reid | | | | |
The only really viable acquiror of USSB is Hughes (DirecTV). They both come off the same satellite and use the same technology platform (DSS). One has to remember that once the consumer has purchased a DSS dish and box its only programming providers are DirecTV and USSB; you can't point a DSS dish at a Sky satellite. Assuming that the combined DirecTV/USSB programming package stays competetive (in terms of content and price) with Sky et al, the installed DSS subscriber base of approximately 3 million is a hell of a headstart. |
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| To: Doug Reid who wrote (25) | 2/27/1997 8:12:00 PM | | From: Bobo | | | |
i just read an article which said how ussb was never going to sell itself w/ directv. this is because the hubbard family owns 60% of the company and do not want to lose control of the family jewel. so any alliances w/ dtv is a dreams away.
i sold my position yesterday when i noticed all the hype with the stock price jumping. i thought some fool had upgraded it. my thinking is that ussb should be even more threatened w/ the echo*/murdoch merger. the merger means that sky can now have mo'betta content and mo channels and execute almost instantly.
do anyone konw why the price shot up from 12ish to 14ish yesterday? i'm confused.
just today, the price dropped due to a "sell" recommendation by some ibank.
in the long run, i see ussb suffering bad. |
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| To: Ken Conaway who wrote () | 5/1/1997 7:41:00 PM | | From: Mister5By5 | | | |
This thread is dead. Isn't anyone else out there optimistic about USSB? Revenues for the last quarter were $99.2 million from $57.0 million in the same period of fiscal 1996. Plus, during the quarter, paying subscribers grew by more than 158,000 to 1,378,000. The average customer spends about $25 per month.
The customer base should only get larger, and operating costs should remain relatively fixed. There are only 3 potential competitors (just 2, if the Echostar/News Corp merger holds up).
Consider a conservative scenario where the company adds 200,000 customers for each of the next 4 quarters. The first group of 200,000 would increase revenue by $60 million this year, the next group by $45 million, the next group by $30 million, and the last group by $15 million. That's $150 million, or nearly a 50% increase in revenues in 1 year.
If DBS continues to steal customers away from cable (a strong industry trend), we should see even faster growth. At 3.5 million customers (a drop in the cable TV bucket) this is a billion dollar company with very small fixed operating costs. The stock could skyrocket like AOL did in 1995.
Cheap, cheap, cheap at $10 a share!
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| To: Mister5By5 who wrote (28) | 5/7/1997 2:05:00 PM | | From: Joe Schmoe | | | |
It puzzles me as well. I wish we could get this thread going. There jsut isn't much going on. Here are my questions.
What are the prospects of Hughes acquiring USSB?
There is some talk of Primestar going public. Any news? what are the implications for USSB?
Around where in terms of subscribers is the break even?
Also the April numbers for direct TV subscribers look good. There is a lot of interest in sat TV around the world and there seems to be no let up in subscribers. This baby has got to move soon!
--SCHMOE |
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| To: Joe Schmoe who wrote (29) | 5/7/1997 10:42:00 PM | | From: Mister5By5 | | | |
Joe,
I have heard that the Hubbards don't want to sell out to Hughes, or anybody else. They want to continue to control the company. Any other opinions about this out there?
I don't know anything about Primestar going public.
Hubbard stated some months ago that the break even point was 1.6 million subscribers. We are almost there now.
Thanks for the post. Hopefully this thread will start to pick up along with the stock price.
Mike Lombardi |
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