Organization and Business Activities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS ACTIVITIES

Principal Business

EchoStar Corporation (which, together with its subsidiaries, is referred to as “EchoStar,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and/or “our”) is a holding company that was organized in October 2007 as a corporation under the laws of the State of Nevada. We are a global provider of satellite service operations, video delivery services, broadband satellite technologies and broadband internet services for home and small office customers. We also deliver innovative network technologies, managed services and various communications solutions for aeronautical, enterprise and government customers. Our Class A common stock is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SATS.”

We primarily operate in the following two business segments:

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Hughes — which provides broadband satellite technologies and broadband internet services to domestic and international home and small office customers and broadband network technologies, managed services, equipment, hardware, satellite services and communication solutions to domestic and international consumers and aeronautical, enterprise and government customers. The Hughes segment also designs, provides and installs gateway and terminal equipment to customers for other satellite systems. In addition, our Hughes segment designs, develops, constructs and provides telecommunication networks comprising satellite ground segment systems and terminals to mobile system operators and our enterprise customers.

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EchoStar Satellite Services (“ESS”) — which uses certain of our owned and leased in-orbit satellites and related licenses to provide satellite service operations and video delivery services on a full-time and occasional-use basis primarily to DISH Network, Dish Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V., a joint venture we entered into in 2008 (“Dish Mexico”), U.S. government service providers, internet service providers, broadcast news organizations, programmers and private enterprise customers. ESS also manages satellite operations for certain satellites owned by DISH Network.

Our operations also include various corporate departments (primarily Executive, Treasury, Strategic Development, Human Resources, IT, Finance, Real Estate and Legal) and other activities that have not been assigned to our operating segments such as costs incurred in certain satellite development programs and other business development activities, and gains or losses from certain of our investments. These activities, costs and income, as well as eliminations of intersegment transactions, are accounted for in Corporate and Other in our segment reporting.

EchoStar Corporation and DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”) have operated as separate publicly-traded companies since DISH Network completed its distribution to us in 2008 of its digital set-top box business, certain infrastructure, and other assets and related liabilities, including certain satellites, uplink and satellite transmission assets and real estate (the “Spin-off”). A substantial majority of the voting power of the shares of each of EchoStar Corporation and DISH is owned beneficially by Charles W. Ergen, our Chairman, and by certain entities established by Mr. Ergen for the benefit of his family.

On January 31, 2017, EchoStar Corporation and certain of our subsidiaries entered into a Share Exchange Agreement (the “Share Exchange Agreement”) with DISH and certain of its subsidiaries. Pursuant to the Share Exchange Agreement, on February 28, 2017, among other things, we received all of the shares of the Hughes Retail Preferred Tracking Stock issued by EchoStar Corporation (the “EchoStar Tracking Stock”) and the Hughes Retail Preferred Tracking Stock issued by our subsidiary Hughes Satellite Systems Corporation (“HSS”) (the “HSS Tracking Stock”, together with the EchoStar Tracking Stock, the “Tracking Stock”) in exchange for 100% of the equity interests of certain EchoStar subsidiaries that held substantially all of our former EchoStar Technologies businesses and certain other assets (collectively, the “Share Exchange”). The EchoStar Technologies businesses designed, developed and distributed secure end-to-end video technology solutions including digital set-top boxes and related products and technology, primarily for satellite TV service providers and telecommunication companies, and provided digital

broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission services, signal processing, conditional access management and other services. The Tracking Stock tracked the economic performance of the residential retail satellite broadband business of our Hughes segment, including certain operations, assets and liabilities attributed to such business (collectively, the “Hughes Retail Group”), and represented an aggregate 80.0% economic interest in the Hughes Retail Group. Following the consummation of the Share Exchange, we no longer operate the EchoStar Technologies businesses, the Tracking Stock was retired and is no longer outstanding, and all agreements, arrangements and policy statements with respect to the Tracking Stock terminated. As a result of the Share Exchange, the operating results of the EchoStar Technologies businesses have been presented as discontinued operations and as such, have been excluded from continuing operations and segment results for all periods presented in our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements. See Note 4 for further discussion of our discontinued operations.