Dish gets new CEO but loses wireless CMO

Dish Network on Monday installed a new CEO, Hamid Akhavan. However, the company confirmed to Light Reading that the CMO of its retail wireless business, Jonathan Sipling, left Dish.

"Jonathan Sipling ... has left the business to pursue new ventures. We appreciate his hard work and commitment to Dish's retail wireless business," the company said in a statement.

Sipling joined Dish in March, having previously held senior marketing leadership roles at Wayfair and Amazon, in addition to leadership roles with Adidas and McKinsey & Company. Sipling helped oversee the launch of Dish's new Boost Infinite advertising campaign tied to the company's iPhone 15 promotion. The campaign is headed by Grey New York.

But it seems that Sipling's efforts did not please Dish founder Charlie Ergen. "Are we doing a great job of marketing? The answer is no," he said during Dish's quarterly conference call last week. "We haven't quite cracked that yet, but we will."

Sipling's departure also comes amid Dish layoffs. The company recently alerted the state of Colorado, where it's based, that it laid off almost 500 employees.

Another executive who recently left Dish is former CEO Erik Carlson, who had worked at the company since 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile. Denver-based real estate company RE/MAX Holdings announced this week that it has installed Carlson as its new CEO. 

Carlson had been tagged to leave Dish after the completion of its merger with EchoStar, with EchoStar CEO Akhavan set to take his place. But Carlson exited early following Dish's disastrous third quarter earnings report, positioning Akhavan to become CEO of both Dish and EchoStar until the two companies complete their merger.

Mixed reviews

Investors appeared unhappy with all the jostling. Dish's stock fell from around $6 per share to $3 per share after the company's third quarter report, where it has remained since.

Wall Street analysts offered mixed opinions on Dish's future.

"We have conviction in the value of Dish's spectrum and the company's ability to use that to their advantage. We remind investors that [Dish] co-founder James DeFranco purchased ~$45 million shares of Dish in the first half of 2023," wrote the analysts at TD Cowen in a note to investors following the release of Dish's third quarter earnings.

But the analysts at MoffettNathanson argued that Dish's third quarter performance portends more trouble down the road.

"Let's be clear. The overwhelming probability here has always been that Dish would enter bankruptcy sometime in the next few years," they wrote, adding that Dish's third quarter financials "likely accelerate that."