Rumors of SoftBank’s interest in acquiring a U.S. television company are causing another stock to rise — this time it’s Dish Network.
Last week, SoftBank was reportedly interested in merging its Sprint telephone company with Charter Communications, a news item that had Charter shares leaping 5 percent in a day.
Now it’s Dish that reportedly piques the interest of SoftBank, also as a partner for Sprint, though shares of Dish were up a more mild 2 percent on Tuesday.
Charter’s market cap is about $96 billion, while Dish is at a more manageable $31 billion, less than Sprint’s $35 billion market cap.
Sprint is also trying to merge with T-Mobile, though those discussions are moving slowly.
All this merger talk is also boosting Sprint, as the stock jumped 11 percent to $8.86 on Tuesday.
Softbank is a Japanese conglomerate with stakes in technology, finance and media companies, including in Alibaba Group, GungHo Online Entertainment, Yahoo! Japan and a Japanese baseball team.
Shares of Dish closed $1.46 higher on Tuesday to $65.49.
