Power Player: Dish's Charlie Ergen

The Power Player today is Charlie Ergen.

The billionaire founder and chairman of Dish Network and EchoStar - making an unsolicited $2.28 billion bid for Clearwire. His offer for the wireless provider trumps Sprint's $2.2 billion proposal already on the table.

Ergen is raising a lot of eyebrows.Some analysts say Ergen's chief goal may not be Clearwire. They speculate his bid is a power play meant to spark a bidding war with Sprint.

Or may be payback; Sprint opposed some of Dish's wireless spectrum plans and is blamed for slowing Dish's network building last year.

There's also speculation Ergen may be trying to force a three-way partnership between Dish, Sprint and Clearwire.

Ergen founded the Dish Network in 1980, after selling satellite dishes from the back of a truck.

Today, he is one of the country's richest people with a net worth of at least $9 billion.

But he says the pay TV industry has matured.

So what's next for Ergen, here's a clue:

He's been gobbling up wireless spectrum and in December, the FCC gave him the green light to build a wireless network.

Ergen stopped running Dish on a day-to-day basis so he can focus on the company's wireless strategy.