After reporting on Monday third-quarter results that one analyst called "astonishingly bad," Dish Network has laid off what local news sources tally to be more than 500 employees
“Like most businesses, we continually evaluate and make adjustments to ensure we’re set up for long-term success,” said a statement from the Englewood, Colo.-based telecom company. “We made the difficult decision to part ways with some team members due to changing business demands on some teams. Impacted employees will be notified by the end of the week.”
Dish said it posted a notification under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. WARN requires companies to give a 60-day notice before laying off workers, but we couldn't find a Dish filing online.
Dish didn't reveal the size of the layoff, but local news sources are running with "more than 500" workers.
The trims follow an earlier Dish layoff round in July involving an undetermined number of jobs.
Prior to Thursday's layoffs, Dish employed around 14,000 workers.
On Monday, Dish reported a third-quarter loss of $139 million on a 9.5% year-over-year revenue decline to $3.7 billion.
Investors have lost faith in the company's declaration that its national 5G network will soon yield a $40 billion-a-year wireless business. In short, building out the wireless business is costing the heavily indebted company $1.6 billion a year. And its pay TV business, which is now shrinking at more than 11% a year on the customer side, isn't producing enough jet thrust to fly the plane.
Dish shares have plunged to a 25-year low of $3.36 a share as of Thursday trading.
“We have a narrow path, but there is a path, to achieve financial stability and make sure we meet our commitments,” Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said during Monday's earnings call with press and analysts. “Having been through this for a long time, we’ve had narrow paths before.”
Responded analyst Craig Moffett: “The overwhelming probability here has always been that Dish would enter bankruptcy sometime in the next few years. Today’s results likely accelerate that.”
