spacetoday.net: EchoStar reports modest fourth quarter profit

Posted: Sat, Mar 27, 2004, 10:16 AM ET (1516 GMT)
Satellite television broadcaster EchoStar reported a small profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared to a large loss from the same quarter a year ago. The company said it had net income of $3 million on $1.51 billion in revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2003, compared to a loss of $716 million on revenue of $1.32 billion in the same quarter of 2002. The loss in 2002 came from charges associated with the termination of its attempted merger with DirecTV, which has since been acquired by News Corporation. For all of 2003 the company reported $5.7 billion in revenue and $225 million in net income, compared to a loss of $852 million on $4.8 million in 2002. The fourth quarter income figures were affected by over $100 million charges associated with bond redemptions and reductions in estimated royalty payments. The profit numbers failed to meet analysts' expectations, and the stock fell 2.7% in trading on Nasdaq on Friday. As of the end of 2003 EchoStar had over 9.4 million subscribers to its Dish Network satellite TV service, second to DirecTV in the United States.