Former Sirius Satellite Radio Network Chairman (and before that CEO) Joseph Clayton will fill some big shoes June 20 when he takes over as president-CEO of Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) from the company's founder--and still chairman--Charlie Ergen.
The move doesn't signal that the seemingly omnipresent Ergen is fading into the background but rather that he will be free of daily duties to concentrate on more future-looking issues for the satellite broadcaster which, in recent weeks, has acquired the Blockbuster video rental chain, agreed to pay out a $500 million patent settlement to TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) and started quietly testing wireline service.
"To us it means that Dish is in good enough shape for Charlie to feel comfortable handing the reins to someone else," Marci Ryvicker, an analyst with Wells Fargo told The Hollywood Reporter.
Before joining Sirius, Clayton also was president of Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) North America and president-CEO of Frontier (NYSE: FTR). Before that he was vice president of marketing and sales for the Americas and Asia of Thomson, no doubt working with Dish on set-top box deals.
He "brings an enormous amount of executive level experience in the satellite and consumer electronics industries," said Ergen in a Dish news release.
For more:
- see this news release
- and this story
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