As many people are reporting and commenting this morning, EchoStar (owner of Dish Network) has acquired Sling Media (maker of the SlingBox and SlingCatcher) for $380 million in cash and stock. As Om Malik suggests this is a smart move to take the money. Over time Sling might have had a tough time competing against larger companies doing similar things (e.g., Apple, Intel, Microsoft).
The SlingCatcher moves the Internet onto TV, which was the most interesting thing to me about the company, although SlingBox allows users to watch TV remotely on a PC (think of this as Internet distribution for EchoStar) and may have been the driver behind the acquisition.
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Related: Google has a TV ads distribution deal with Dish.
