EchoStar exploring acquisitions, says CEO on earnings call

EchoStar reported total revenue of $502 million for the first quarter, with $494 million in revenue attributed to the Hughes subsidiary. Consolidated revenue increased 3.9% year over year primarily driven by higher equipment sales of $30.5 million to domestic and international enterprise customers, partially offset by lower service revenues of $11.5 million, due to lower broadband consumer customers.

Net income was $88.9 million, an increase of $11.4 million year over year. The increase was primarily due to lower net interest expense and favorable gains on foreign exchange.

In the first quarter, approximately 64% of Hughes segment revenue was attributable to consumer customers with approximately 36% attributable to our enterprise customers. 

EchoStar’s new CEO and President Hamid Akhavan said on the investor call that the company is undergoing a “fresh reassessment of our resources and opportunities and an examination of our industry and adjacent verticals, with the goal to reignite and refine our corporate growth profile.” 

Akhavan said the company is exploring both organic growth and acquisitions. He highlighted EchoStar’s strong balance sheet, global presence, trusted reputation, engineering capabilities, and S-band spectrum assets. 

“We will be more active in terms of using our cash and our abilities to expand our business using our resources,” Akhavan said. “I think the market is heading in a direction where opportunities will be cheaper and better to acquire, and I look forward to using our resources even more optimally as that happens.” 

Akhavan did go into much detail, but shared that potential acquisitions would take the company’s technology into new markets, versus acquiring new technology. 

“How do we take these technologies into new markets, adjacent markets? How can we gain  scale where [if we were to do it] organically, it might take too long? We accelerate in some of the areas where we have capabilities, through acquisitions,” Akhavan.  BCS Bureau