Milling rumors of AT&T buyout of EchoStar?

We all know we're about overripe for a major communications infrastructure industry shakedown between the onslaught of VoIP, WiMAX, IPTV, and other data delivery mechanisms that undermine swaths of the traditional wire-line infrastructure. But it looks like AT&T, the company with a long, sordid past (who announced this week to spend nearly half a billion dollars to refresh its brand in 2006) is the object of some big acquisition rumors -- the subject being satellite media heavyweight EchoStar (known, of course, for their DISH brand). Apparently analysts believe an AT&T buyout of DISH wouldn't be entirely far fetched due to the pair's ties in currently existing partnerships, and the fact that in order for AT&T to stay competitive, it's going to need to offer the same kind of triple/quadruple-plays (i.e. home and cellphone service, video, and Internet) companies like Verizon already have (or are in the process of formulating offerings for, like Sprint Nextel's major cable co. tie-ins). Video, of course, is AT&T's missing link here, but is the newly re-merged giant prepared to buy up yet another business with a 12 billion market cap -- on top of already mounting debts in acquisitions and laying fiber-to-the-home infrastructure that could well cannibalize DISH's business anyhow? Sounds like this could be biting off a lot more than they could chew, but then again it wouldn't exactly be out of character for AT&T to be, um, aggressive, now would it?

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