Here'e the little that I understand about the issue (I'm sure I'm butcherin the details here...). There was a battle between NewsCorp and EchoStar for the purchase of DirecTV. The battle was raging and Microsoft jumped into the ring on the side of NewsCorp. It would have been a serious win for MS had they succeeded with NewsCorp. Their participation put the screws to EchoStar in the deal but in the end MS/NewsCorp failed to acquire DirecTV and EchoStar won. From what I know, the bad blood from the deal put Microsoft in a precarious position since Ultimate TV was DirecTV only. I'm guessing this had something to do with MS change in strategy...
Slashdot Mirror
Here'e the little that I understand about the issue (I'm sure I'm butcherin the details here...). There was a battle between NewsCorp and EchoStar for the purchase of DirecTV. The battle was raging and Microsoft jumped into the ring on the side of NewsCorp. It would have been a serious win for MS had they succeeded with NewsCorp. Their participation put the screws to EchoStar in the deal but in the end MS/NewsCorp failed to acquire DirecTV and EchoStar won. From what I know, the bad blood from the deal put Microsoft in a precarious position since Ultimate TV was DirecTV only. I'm guessing this had something to do with MS change in strategy...