Plus: Airbus to get $3.42 billion loan from European Investment Bank in push for tech sovereignty. And Dish DBS prepares to file for bankruptcy. Julie Chang hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Monday, June 29. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Strategy announced today it would repurchase up to $1 billion of its preferred shares and up to $1 billion of its Class A common stock to stem a loss of confidence.
[00:00:19] Michael Saylor's crypto hoarding company also said it might sell Bitcoin to raise up to $1.25 billion in cash to help cover dividend payments and interest on outstanding debt, as well as to fund its share repurchase program and cash reserve. A month-long crypto selloff has hammered shares of Strategy and other crypto treasury companies. By Friday, the company's common shares logged eight straight days of losses and were down by more than 80% from their November 2024 peak.
[00:00:48] And Stretch, its biggest and most popular preferred stock, hit a record low, trading 25% below its par value of $100. European aerospace leader Airbus will get more than a $3.4 billion loan from the European Investment Bank, the largest corporate loan ever authorized by the EIB. The move is part of European officials' efforts to build out the bloc's own technological capabilities to fend off mounting competition from the U.S. and China.
[00:01:17] The financing package will bolster Airbus' research and development, supporting investments through 2030 in areas such as commercial aviation, security, and defense. And we exclusively report that satellite pay TV provider Dish DBS is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as Tuesday. Thus, according to people familiar with the matter, Dish DBS is a unit of EchoStar, which also owns Dish TV and Boost Mobile.
[00:01:47] EchoStar has been struggling with heavy debt and subscriber losses for years. At the same time, the company has been locked in a battle with federal regulators over whether it has met its obligations to deploy its valuable wireless spectrum licenses. Representatives for EchoStar and Dish Network didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing Podcast. Attention all passengers.
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