Sirius+XM: End is near

chris

Mel Karmazin, president & CEO at Sirius Satellite Radio, speaking about his planned merger with XM Satellite, said his company “feels the reasonable frustration that our investors feel”.

The deal has been in the public domain for more than 400 days (since February last year), and with the FCC for almost 350 days, he said, when the FCC normally gave its decision within 180 days.

Karmazin was reporting Sirius’ latest numbers to March 31, but he also stressed that in the event of the deal not being approved then Sirius would go it alone. Sirius reported a narrowing loss of $104.1m during the quarter-year (whereas XM’s loss increased) from $144m last year helped by revenues up 33% to $270.4m. Sirius subs are 8.6m, up 31% on a year ago thanks to a net new subs growth of 322,534.

"We ... share the outrage that some have expressed to me regarding press reports of opportunistic parties trying to take advantage of the process and extract value for themselves that properly belongs to Sirius subscribers and shareholders. I can assure you we will work with the regulators on any conditions they feel should be attached to an approval. I can also assure that we will not do anything that is not in our subscribers', future subscribers', or shareholders' best interest."

Karmazin told analysts that this is the 10th consecutive quarter that Sirius has “attracted the majority of the growth in total satellite radio subscribers. According to NPD Group, Sirius achieved a 63% share of satellite radio after market sales during the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 62% one year ago. Sirius is continuing to increase market share.”



Source: Rapid TV News

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