XM and SIRIUS to merge

redytrk

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
Over a year after talk of a Sirius and XM merger first surfaced, the companies made it official on Monday.

The two U.S. satellite radio providers announced a merger of equals on President's Day. Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius stock for each share of XM they own. XM and SIRIUS shareholders will each own approximately 50% of the combined company.

Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin, will become chief executive officer of the new company, while XM Chairman Gary Parsons will be chairman of the merged concern. The companies said that together they will have an enterprise value of $13 billion, including $1.6 billion of long-term debt.

"This combination is the next logical step in the evolution of audio entertainment," Karmazin was quoted as saying. "Together, our best-in-class management team and programming content will create unprecedented choice for consumers, while creating long-term value for shareholders of both companies."

According to the statement, users will be able to pick their services on a "more a la carte basis" than currently available. Some of the programming will be commercial free; currently all Sirius stations and some of XM's offerings do not carry advertising.

The merger is subject to shareholder approval and also must pass antitrust hurdles. Federal regulators have said certain laws preclude such a combination that would monopolize the relatively young industry.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I think that the excuses that are being used for this merger, competition from terrestrial radio, HD radio and iPods, are weak.

I mean with both the subscriber base taken in account and the amount of money being made and the fact that our taxes pay for a lot of the satellite and location maintenance, they are really making a lot of money and I strongly feel that this merger is not to the advantage of the public and will create nothing more of a monopoly than anything else.

Including the fact that we don’t use Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), we are going to see serious restrictions to software defined receiving equipment and finally coming around to better technology like HD radio (which is not really a cost effective means to listen to public licensed radio stations) and Digital TV (which is considered racist by the democratic spin put on it), the fact that we should demand more choices, especially with subscription base services like sat radio (maybe we should push things like Digital Audio Broadcast services) and the FTC should say no to XM/Sirius merger.
 

highway star

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
All of the music channels on Sirius are commercial free, but most of the others have commercials.
 

unorthodoxneon

Expert Expediter
As long as Xm keeps liquid metal and doesnt axe them again i'll be happy!!! The metal station on sirius isnt really all that great.
 

vipra

Expert Expediter
I think it's great that they're merging. I've had XM since it came out, but Sirius has some things that XM doesn't, like the all-Elvis channel. Hopefully when they merge they won't cut any of each company's unique programming.
 
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