Dish pulls bid for LightSquared; shares drop

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp has pulled its bid to buy bankrupt wireless spectrum provider LightSquared Inc, a lawyer said in court on Thursday. Joshua Sussberg, a lawyer for an official committee appointed to oversee any potential LightSquared auction, opened a court hearing by confirming that Dish had pulled its bid. A source familiar with the transaction had told Reuters earlier in the day that Dish had withdrawn its bid. Shares of Dish, which is looking to enter the wireless market, fell 3 percent, as investors had considered a deal with LightSquared a good way for the company to expand its spectrum holdings. Dish had put in a bid of $2.2 billion for LightSquared, but its efforts were opposed by LightSquared lenders and the telecom firm's controlling shareholder, Harbinger Capital Partners. Dish declined to comment, as did a representative for Harbinger, the hedge fund started by investor Philip Falcone. Dish has spent billions of dollars buying spectrum, but has struggled to find a way to put that spectrum to use. Its Chairman Charlie Ergen has said he wants to use the airwaves to build a broadband service for wireless delivery of video. The company's shares were down $1.66, or almost 3 percent, at $56.30 in mid morning trading on Nasdaq following the news, after falling as low as $55.91 earlier in the session. The LightSquared decision was first reported in the Wall Street Journal on January 8. The move is the latest twist in a long-running saga involving LightSquared's efforts to use controversial wireless airwaves to build a broadband network in the United States. LightSquared filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blocked its plan to build a wireless network because the regulator feared it would interfere with GPS navigation. The case is In re: LightSquared Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-12080. (Reporting by Nick Brown and Sinead Carew; Editing by Bernadette Baum)