The whole reason Dish was pursuing a sale is because the company is utterly riddled with debt; DirecTV was going to buy Dish for $1 and assume its debt of $9.75 billion. Presumably, everyone knew those figures going in,

The deal, which would have created one of the largest pay-TV providers in the United States, fell apart after strong objections from Dish’s lenders.

DirecTV has notified EchoStar Corp. of its intention to terminate an acquisition of Dish Network Corp. after it failed to win the consent of bondholders for a key debt exchange, all but killing a deal to create the largest U.S. pay-TV service.