# Charlie steps down, mostly



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

http://dish.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=577481

PRESS RELEASE:

Joseph P. Clayton Named President and CEO of DISH Network

Charles W. Ergen to Continue as Chairman

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) announced today that Joseph P. Clayton has been named the company's president and chief executive officer and has been appointed to the DISH Network board of directors, effective June 20, 2011. Charles W. Ergen, who formerly held the positions of president and chief executive officer, will remain as chairman of DISH Network.

"Joe is a 38-year veteran of the consumer electronics, telecommunications and satellite communications industries and I am pleased to have him lead DISH Network as president and CEO," said Ergen, chairman of DISH Network. "Joe brings an enormous amount of executive-level experience in the satellite and consumer electronics industries, including positions at RCA, General Electric and Thomson, and we look forward to his leadership as we continue to deliver video entertainment into the future."

"I am very excited to take on this new challenge," said Clayton. "My working relationship with Charlie spans nearly 20 years, and I look forward to building on DISH Network's legacy of innovation and value in TV entertainment."

Clayton previously served as chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., from November 2004 through July 2008 and served as chief executive officer of Sirius from November 2001 through November 2004. Prior to joining Sirius, Clayton served as president of Global Crossing North America, as president and chief executive officer of Frontier Corporation and as executive vice president of Marketing and Sales for the Americas and Asia of Thomson S.A.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

IIRC this guy built some big mansion type headquaters in Beverly Hills for Global Crossing before it went bankrupt (Platinum Equity now owns it). Also during his time at Sirius it never made money, I wonder how he'll fit in with the Dish culture?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

So no more Charlie Chats? :eek2:


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

Maybe they'll be replaced by Joshing wih Joe.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

phrelin said:


> So no more Charlie Chats? :eek2:


That's already happened ... when you saw him last time chatting ?


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## bones boy (Aug 25, 2007)

BobaBird said:


> Maybe they'll be replaced by Joshing wih Joe.


Jabbering with Joe


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## purtman (Sep 19, 2006)

Does this mean that sports fans may finally get some decent programming?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

This does not appear to be some kind of big vision change for Dish. From here http://wapo.st/mCZCih :


> Q: You were appointed as new CEO of Dish to "deliver video entertainment into the future." What will this future look like?
> 
> A: It's a story that's still evolving. For example, we only bought Blockbuster a few weeks ago and Hughes, which will add satellite and broadband capability a month ago. So we are rationalizing within our asset base with Echostar and Dish. And I'd be willing to bet that Charlie Ergen is not done yet. That was part of the rationale behind the announcement, for me to do the day to day and he's got Mike Dugan at Echostar as CEO. That way he can concentrate on the strategic direction of what I'll call the Ergen empire.
> 
> ...


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## tommiet (Dec 29, 2005)

phrelin said:


> So no more Charlie Chats? :eek2:


I gave up on them YEARS ago when it turned into a 20 minute infomercial and then the calls from the POOR sports fans that can see their local sports team EVERY MONTH!

Give me a break!


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## Lucavex (Apr 26, 2011)

tommiet said:


> I gave up on them YEARS ago when it turned into a 20 minute infomercial and then the calls from the POOR sports fans that can see their local sports team EVERY MONTH!
> 
> Give me a break!


I sense hostility.
Easy killer, it'll be okay. :feelbette

I digress. I think Charlie may not have made the best choice as his proxy in the office.

But, he may know something we do not.

Only time will tell.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

My brother worked for Global Crossing while this guy was in charge. My brother thinks he's very evil and a horrible businessman to boot. Bad choice for the satellite TV industry.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Here's another good interview with Clayton, done with Mike Farrell of Multichannel News: http://www.multichannel.com/article/468366-Clayton_Dishes.php


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## jacmyoung (Sep 9, 2006)

"Lucavex" said:


> I sense hostility.
> Easy killer, it'll be okay. :feelbette
> 
> I digress. I think Charlie may not have made the best choice as his proxy in the office.
> ...


I agree he has his own vision and plan, the problem seems to me the people he selects to help him to realize his vision and plan.


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## SeaBeagle (May 7, 2006)

"tommiet" said:


> I gave up on them YEARS ago when it turned into a 20 minute infomercial and then the calls from the POOR sports fans that can see their local sports team EVERY MONTH!
> 
> Give me a break!


I agree the Charlie Chat is like looking at one of their adverts. Then about 15 minutes of some interview with something that has nothing to do with what Charlie Chat is on air for. Technical Chat is better but never on any more.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> My brother worked for Global Crossing while this guy was in charge. My brother thinks he's very evil and a horrible businessman to boot. Bad choice for the satellite TV industry.


Clayton certainly deserves some blame for the Global Crossing problems. But it appears from this New York Times article he probably wasn't a primary in the manipulations that went on.

It's pretty hard to find a complete well-organized descriptive biography of the Clayton's life, but I stumbled upon this intro someone did for an award presentation on the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) website:


> Clayton was born October 11, 1949, in Louisville, Kentucky. His father owned a liquor store and Clayton always assumed he would earn his bachelor and master's degrees, then return to Kentucky to sell whiskey. As planned, he graduated magna cum laude with a BA in business administration from Bellarmine University in Louisville, then earned an MBA from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. But he never got back to Kentucky.
> 
> Instead, Clayton started his career with RCA in New York in February 1973 as a marketing associate. A year later at RCA's Indianapolis headquarters, he was named the company's color television product manager, then took on successive national merchandising responsibilities for RCA's black & white TVs, its new line of VHS VCRs, and finally, all of its TV products in 1978. Clayton then moved to the sales side, first tackling Detroit, then New York City, Chicago and then San Francisco. In 1985, Clayton went back to Indianapolis as VP of marketing operations, then video product marketing, then was named senior VP of all TV business in North and South America. In 1992, he was named executive VP of sales for the Americas and Asia for RCA's new parent company, Thomson.
> 
> ...


From this description, I can understand better this post suggesting he might be able to do something for Dish's sports offerings:


purtman said:


> Does this mean that sports fans may finally get some decent programming?


I also can understand that at age 61 he has a background across the whole range of Echostar/Dish business activities which appears to make him an ideal helper for Charlie.

We'll see....


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Ask anybody in Rochester NY what they think of him.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

purtman said:


> Does this mean that sports fans may finally get some decent programming?


Less sports would be better. Maybe if they concentrated on the more significant events? Do we really need coverage of everyone on the world playing with their balls?


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

The CEA intro above that Phrelin dug up reads like a resumé. What's that? Oh, it is a resumé!

Mr. Clayton seems to be well-qualified. Charlie wants to diversify and, based on what I read in Phrelin's report, Clayton appears to be the man for the job. That said, what it all comes down to is whether the two men can get along.

Congrats and best wishes to both.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't every company Clayton has run according to this press release, been a money loser? I would think you would want someone who has run companies profitably, and over the long term, too.

Not a good sign.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

The departure of Charlie Ergen is the end of an era. I will miss him...


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

lee635 said:


> The departure of Charlie Ergen is the end of an era. I will miss him...


you do know he isn't going anywhere...right?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Michael1 said:


> Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't every company Clayton has run according to this press release, been a money loser? I would think you would want someone who has run companies profitably, and over the long term, too.
> 
> Not a good sign.


As the relationship has been described by Clayton himself, Charlie is still going to be hands-on when it comes to the big picture goals and money issues. Charlie and his family are still the majority shareholders.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Michael1 said:


> Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't every company Clayton has run according to this press release, been a money loser? I would think you would want someone who has run companies profitably, and over the long term, too.
> 
> Not a good sign.


ding, ding, ding! Michael1 is today's winner. Thanks for understanding that Clayton is BAD for all of us (I'm a D* sub).


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## smoelheim (Dec 22, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Ask anybody in Rochester NY what they think of him.


As soon as I saw that Charlie was leaving, I had to click to read the article (even though I'm a DirecTV sub, not DishNetwork).

Then I saw that Clayton was taking over.

"Hmm," I thought... "Isn't that the guy who destroyed both Frontier AND Global Crossing?".

Thanks to everyone here for doing the research.

Frontier was a growing telecommunications company with a bright future and huge footprint here in Rochester. Then, even as the company was growing, Clayton pissed off a lot of his employees and created an unhappy culture at Frontier. In the name of the almighty dollar, he then "merged" with Global Crossing, a company who was buying an amazing amount of telecommunication assets. He became a VP at GC as part of the merger.

A couple of years later, GC folded in upon itself, and essentially stole all of its employees retirement accounts. People who had worked for the company 40 years suddenly had NOTHING to retire on. Many years later, after several lawsuits, they finally received a settlement of pennies on the dollar for their retirements.

Everything this guy has touched has turned to junk.

Good luck DishNetwork subscribers... you'll need it.


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## la24philly (Mar 9, 2010)

lee635 said:


> The departure of Charlie Ergen is the end of an era. I will miss him...


he is still the chairman, he can still have final say on anything if he wishes


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## Lincoln6Echo (Jul 11, 2007)

wilbur_the_goose said:


> My brother worked for Global Crossing while this guy was in charge. My brother thinks he's very evil and a horrible businessman to boot. Bad choice for the satellite TV industry.


Evil? Do I sense some political motives in that assessment, or not?


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