SBC not backing EchoStar's play

SBC Communications Chief Executive Edward Whitacre said that SBC isn't involved in a EchoStar's attempt to mount a bid for Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV unit. "We have nothing to do with it,'' Whitacre said in an interview with Bloomberg News at a telephone trade show in Atlanta.
EchoStar has been scrounging for backers to stage a bid that would thwart News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch's own hopes to take over the satellite company.
- John Higgins