SpaceX, the Elon Musk-backed company that owns the Starlink satellite internet network, agreed to acquire wireless spectrum from EchoStar Corp. for about $17 billion, allowing Charlie Ergen’s beleaguered telecommunications company to resolve an overhanging regulatory probe and pay down debt.
SpaceX is buying EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses designated for satellite and mobile communications, according to a statement Monday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. It will pay as much as $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX has also agreed to fund a total of about $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.
Shares of EchoStar rose as much as 26% on Monday in New York to a record high of $84.48. Its bonds were the biggest gainers in the junk-bond market, according to Trace pricing data.
The AWS-4 sale transfers another crown jewel of EchoStar’s spectrum portfolio, effectively ending hopes that it would become a fourth major wireless carrier as stipulated by regulators as part of the approval of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger. As part of that deal, T-Mobile divested assets to EchoStar, including its Boost Mobile prepaid wireless brand.
“The deals that EchoStar reached with AT&T and Starlink hold the potential to supercharge competition, extend innovative new services to millions of Americans, and boost US leadership in next-gen connectivity,” the FCC said in a statement. The agency will review the applications and continue to focus on promoting the beneficial use of scarce spectrum resources, it said.
EchoStar will use proceeds from the spectrum deals to pay down some of its $25 billion debt load. Its debt has soared from distressed levels, vindicating bondholders who withstood years of brinkmanship and legal drama with Ergen.
The deal is also a boon for SpaceX, which has been trying to build out a direct-to-device satellite option. The agreement will combine EchoStar's spectrum with SpaceX’s rocket launch and satellite capabilities “to realize the direct-to-cell vision in a more innovative, economical, and faster way,” Hamid Akhavan, EchoStar's chief executive officer, said in the statement.
Satellite operators like SpaceX seeking to provide mobile service from space usually need to team up with at least one company that holds ground-based mobile licenses. SpaceX currently has a partnership with T-Mobile US Inc., but Monday’s spectrum acquisition would allow it to offer its own offerings more independently.
Shares of other wireless carriers fell on the news. T-Mobile was down 4.1%, while Verizon Communications Inc. was down 2.4% and AT&T was down 3.4%.
The transaction with EchoStar “will advance our mission to end mobile dead zones around the world,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer at SpaceX.
Since SpaceX launched its first Starlink satellites in 2019, it has signed up about 6 million customers in more than 100 countries, far outpacing its competitors. In June, it also won regulatory approval in India, paving the way for rolling out satellite internet services in the world’s most populous country.
The FCC launched its probe into EchoStar’s spectrum use amid complaints from Musk that EchoStar was hogging valuable airwaves without delivering commercial service with them. SpaceX had asked the FCC to allow it to share the band it will now own.
The regulator has designated the AWS-4 band, also known as the 2 GHz band, to carry terrestrial mobile transmissions as well as traffic between satellites and ground-based infrastructure. In 2011, Ergen acquired the rights to the entire band from DBSD and Terrestar, a pair of satellite companies that went into bankruptcy.
MDA Space Ltd., a Canadian satellite manufacturer, said it received a termination notification from EchoStar related to a constellation contract announced Aug. 1. The company said the termination is the result of a sudden change to EchoStar’s business strategy and plan in the wake of spectrum allocation discussions with the FCC.
— Howard Stern, the popular and highly paid radio host, returned to SiriusXM’s airwaves Monday after trolling listeners into thinking he had departed his long-running show.
Stern, 71, who evolved from his shock jock origins to become a respected interviewer, enlisted a seemingly flustered Andy Cohen at the top of “The Howard Stern Show” to pretend to be his successor. “This was supposed to be a cleaner handoff. I’m kind of winging it,” said Cohen.
Stern then came on the air and thanked the Bravo personality, who has his own SiriusXM show and podcast, for agreeing to do the bit. The stunt was the culmination of weeks of promos that promised a big reveal, following swirling speculation that Stern’s show would be canceled. “The tabloids have spoken: Howard Stern fired, canceled,” one promo video said. “Is it really bye-bye Booey?” The speculation grew after Stern postponed his return from a summer break last week.
While he did return on Monday, Stern did not announce that he had reached a new contract with SiriusXM. His current deal expires at the end of 2025.
“Here’s the truth: SiriusXM and my team have been talking about how we go forward in the future. They’ve approached me, they’ve sat down with me like they normally do, and they’re fantastic,” Stern said.
Stern's joining what was then Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in 2006 made him one of the highest-paid personalities in broadcasting and was a game-changer for both the company and the nascent satellite radio industry. His importance was highlighted on the SiriusXM homepage — tabs included For You, Music, Talk & Podcasts, Sports, and Howard.
SiriusXM in the years after Stern joined has become home to top podcasts “Call Her Daddy,” “SmartLess,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “Last Podcast on the Left,” “99% Invisible” and “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and features such personalities as Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart and Stephen A. Smith.
But SiriusXM’s subscriber base has been slowly contracting, with the company reporting 33 million paid subscribers in the second quarter of 2025, a net loss of 68,000 from the first quarter and 100,000 fewer than the same period in 2024. It is battling a saturated satellite market and competition from free, ad-supported platforms like Spotify.
Stern extended his contract with SiriusXM twice before, in 2010 and again in 2020, with a five-year, $500 million deal, Forbes reported. He’s recently had newsy and intimate chats with Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen.
“He’s been with me and the company going on two decades, and so he’s pretty happy, but he’s also able, like many great artists, to stop whenever he wants,” SiriusXM president and chief content officer Scott Greenstein told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024. “Nobody will ever replace them. We would never try to replace them.”
Stern, who has liked to call himself the King of All Media, rose to national fame in the 1980s during his 20-year stint at the then-WXRK in New York. At its peak, “The Howard Stern Show” was syndicated in 60 markets and drew over 20 million listeners. Stern was lured to satellite radio by the lucrative payday and a lack of censorship, following bruising indecency battles with the Federal Communications Commission and skittish radio executives. His past on-air bits had included parading strippers through his New York studio and persuading the band then known as The Dixie Chicks to reveal intimate details about their sex lives.
His 1997 film “Private Parts” became a box office hit and offered a raw, humorous look at his rise to fame. He has also authored several bestselling books and served as a judge on “America’s Got Talent” from 2012 to 2015.
Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index after riding the popularity of cryptocurrencies to profitability and an all-time high stock price.
The company is set to join the benchmark index on Sept. 22, along with mobile technology platform AppLovin and construction company Emcor Group.
Robinhood is having one of its best years since going public in 2021 after struggling early on. It closed below its IPO price of $38 on its first day of trading. The stock remained volatile over the next few years, finishing 2023 at $12.74 per share.
The stock has tripled in 2025 so far, trading at more than $100 per share. That follows a similar gain in 2024.
An increased interest in cryptocurrency amid a friendlier regulatory environment for the digital currency has helped turn around the online broker’s profits. The company lost 61 cents per share in 2023, but sharply reversed course in 2024 for a profit of $1.56 per share. Wall Street expects the company to close out 2025 with $1.64 per share in profit.
The company has been benefiting from the government’s hands-off approach to cryptocurrency and regulation during President Donald Trump’s tenure. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission closed an investigation into the company. The SEC declined to pursue enforcement action over allegations that Robinhood failed to register certain crypto assets on its platform as securities.
Robinhood was also at the center of the original “meme stock” craze in 2021 that centered on heavy trading of GameStop and AMC Entertainment. The company had to temporarily restrict trading of those companies amid a dispute between online activist retail investors and institutional investors.
Shares of Robinhood surged 13.8% in morning trading, while AppLovin shares jumped 11.5%.
For years, Republicans have disparaged their political rivals by describing them as socialists. But that may not be the insult it once was for rank-and-file Democrats, who have warmed to socialism and increasingly see “capitalism” as a barb.
A new Gallup poll finds that while U.S. adults overall are more likely to have a positive view of capitalism than socialism, Democrats feel differently. According to the survey, only 42% of Democrats view capitalism favorably, while 66% have a positive view of socialism.
Capitalism’s image has slipped with U.S. adults overall since 2021, the survey finds, and the results show a gradual but persistent shift in Democrats’ support for the two ideologies over the past 15 years, with socialism rising as capitalism falls. The shifts underscore deep divisions within the party about whether open support for socialism will hurt Democrats’ ability to reach moderates or galvanize greater support from people who are concerned about issues like the cost of living.
Those tensions were cast into sharp relief earlier this year when Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary in the race for New York City mayor, leading some centrist Democrats to worry about his impact on the party’s national brand. Meanwhile, years after independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaigns put a new face and brand on socialism, Sanders is attracting massive crowds with a “fighting oligarchy” tour pushing Democrats to embrace his ideas as they search for a path back to viability.
The new poll, conducted in August among a sample of 1,094 U.S. adults, shows that both younger and older Democrats have warmed slightly on socialism since 2010. But Democrats under 50 are much less likely to view capitalism favorably, while the opinions of Democrats ages 50 and older haven’t shifted meaningfully, according to Gallup.
Other polls suggest that capitalism’s waning popularity reflects a growing sense of economic unfairness, rather than a broader rejection of an economic system. Views of free enterprise remain largely positive, according to the new Gallup poll, but perceptions of big business have soured since 2010.
Capitalism declines in popularity
Just over half of U.S. adults, 54%, have a positive view of capitalism, according to the new survey, a slight decline from 61% in 2010. Democrats have driven some of the shift, but favorable opinions of capitalism have fallen among independents as well.
Sanders’ rise as a national political figure over the past decade also brought criticism of capitalism into the mainstream. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He fell short both times but built a devoted movement around his concept of democratic socialism, drawing crowds and engaging voters disaffected with politics with a message of class struggle between workers and elites. Mamdani and other young progressive Democrats, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have drawn on his work.
Young adults generally — but particularly younger Democrats — are much less positive about capitalism than they were 15 years ago. Only 31% of Democrats under 50 have a positive view of capitalism, the new poll found, compared to 54% in 2010.
Other polling has found fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats about capitalism’s fairness.
A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that only about 2 in 10 Democrats said “gives all people an equal chance to be successful” describes capitalism “extremely” or “very” well, and even fewer said that about “makes sure everyone’s basic needs, such as food, health care, and housing, are met.”
Around half of Republicans said that capitalism gives all people an opportunity to be successful, but fewer said it meets people’s basic needs.
More negative views of big business
Big business is also increasingly unpopular, according to the new poll. Only 37% of U.S. adults have a positive image of big business, down from 49% in 2010.
There’s a wide partisan split in views of big business – 17% of Democrats have a positive view, compared to 60% of Republicans – but Republicans’ assessments of big business have become more negative in the past few years.
The vast majority of U.S. adults continue to have a positive view of free enterprise, though, suggesting that many Americans continue to be happy with some elements of the country’s economic system.
Socialism grows more polarizing
While capitalism has gotten slightly less popular among Americans overall, views of socialism have remained stable. That’s because while Democrats have warmed somewhat to the idea, Republicans’ opinions of socialism, which were already negative, have curdled even more.
Now, the Gallup poll found that only 14% of Republicans have a positive view of socialism, compared to 66% of Democrats. Positive views of socialism have grown among older and younger Democrats, according to Gallup’s polling.
These changing views present a conundrum for Democratic politicians, who are routinely accused of being “communists” or “socialists,” but have historically tried to pivot away from those characterizations. Now, though, the label is increasingly appealing to their base, which could bolster efforts within the party to embrace the concept of socialism, rather than shying away from it.
The shift was apparent as Sanders and Mamdani held a joint town hall in New York City on Saturday as part of Mamdani’s bid to lead the Democratic stronghold. As Mamdani was delivering his opening remarks, a man with a shirt that read Cuba and a Cuban flag approached the stage, yelling that Mamdani was a Communist. He was removed by security.
“You know that something has changed when it’s not enough to call us democratic socialists anymore,” Mamdani said.