AfterDawn: News

Sirius, XM shareholders to vote on merger

Shareholders of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, the only two satellite radio providers in the United States, are to vote on Sirius' proposed multi-billion dollar acquisition of XM. The deal has not yet been given approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), nor the Justice Department, whom are looking into the proposed merger for potential antitrust implications that could raise prices for consumers.

On November 13th, XM shareholders will vote whether or not to be bought out by Sirius, while Sirius investors must approve the issuance of shares and related matters. Under the deal, XM shareholders would get 4.6 Sirius shares for each XM share. In 1997, both companies were granted licenses by the FCC, but had to agree that there would never be a merger between the two in case a satellite radio monopoly was created.



Nowadays however, the companies claim that new technology that has been introduced in the last 10 years, including HD Radio and even MP3 and iPods, serve as competition for Satellite Radio. It's up to the FCC to decide whether transferring both licenses to one company is in the public interest.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Oct 2007 17:46

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• 6 comments

• WierdName

  Personally, I think that it could possibly be a bad thing. It would result in one company not being able to keep the other in check with the consumer. However, Personal MP3 players, local radio stations, etc. provide a fair check with satellite radio because (a) the consumer can listen to what they want when they want with personal players and can vote in a smaller pool for local radio stations and (b) the portable multimedia market is expanding fast which with things such as music and video on cell phones, internet radio/video with the expanding mobile internet market, etc. It's more of a matter of accurately predicting how it would play out if there was a merge.

  4.10.2007 18:57 #1

• jetyi83

  yeah i don't think the satellite radio industry is even strong enogh to hike prices to an unfair level. people would just close their account and find something better. music is pretty easy to come by. but then agaiin, if there is no advantage to the consumer to have the merger, why should anyone want it other than the people making money.

  4.10.2007 21:49 #2

• b18bek9

  well seeing how radio is free yet satellite isnt i would think a merger would actually help the companies & its subscribers instead of bankrupting the companies. XM & Sirius have to fight free radio, CD's and Ipods and other media an on top of that have to sell devices to play there channels and last pay for their own content from DJ's and personalitis to even music deal's with record labels to play their music.... all i can say is satellite has its ups an downs but mostly the companies are spending alot of money out there @ss in order to get subscribers and from what i've seen XM has lowered priced due to lack of sales an sirius of course is slowing down in subscriptions as well so a merger would join both companies who have about 7-8 million subscribers a piece so 14-15 million subscriptions alone would be great....and yes i have sirius and enjoy the comercial free music stations and most stations have barely any comercials if any....So i'd like to see these companies merge seeing has proces might drop as well...

  4.10.2007 23:22 #3

• spydah

  I would love this merger because i am a XM customer and they are great to me. 20x's better then listening to boring FM stations when i dont have my ipod. I want Sirius for the NBA and NFL channels thats all.

  5.10.2007 04:21 #4

• OhCrap

  Yeah, if they were to get out of hand with the prices I would just close my account as well. No big deal. It's not like you have to have it.

  5.10.2007 05:18 #5

• wuhead

  Who cares about pricing? Think about the content of what you'd be getting! MORE channels, MORE of a variety! NO commercials and everything is UNCENSORED! I still don't get why people listen to the same old fashioned boring radio. It's all TOP 40 garbage that is played over and over again with no variety. Come to think of it, basically, regular radio isn't what SIRIUS and XM is.
  
  And as far as this HD RADIO garbage. What is that all about? The only difference with that is, is you get to hear the free garbage clearer.
  
  I got news for ya, as soon as Stern left regular radio and went to SIRIUS, I haven't looked back since. Money well spent. Satellite t.v., Satellite Radio, its all good.

  5.10.2007 09:16 #6