Business Insider is quoting two sources that Dish was the highest bid at $1.9 billion because Google’s $4 billion bid came with a lot of strings attached.
“Dish was the highest bidder, coming in around $1.9 billion. It beat out both Amazon and Yahoo.
Google bid much more â something in the range of $4 billion. But that bid came with special conditions, as has been previously reported â Google wanted more content for a longer period of time, and perhaps other concessions as well.” Read BI’s full article here
As I’ve mentioned before, TV is the next huge battleground for Google at $500 billion. So $4 billion is peanuts to make Google’s content issues go away. But it’s not that clear cut for Google. The fact that the content guys are saying they want the ad model to go away is important. With WSJ reporting that YouTube is on the cusp of launching their TV channels, it’s a complicated game Google is playing here.
Dish is a bit different. They already have content. Opening up on the Internet front in addition to satellite has got to be game changer for them. They also don’t have the complexity issues that come with the Internet guys.
