So the rumor is that these two (Sirius and XMSR) are merging and will announce tomorrow. They do the same thing with airlines – slam two shit companies together for the shit squared effect. Some people will make money, but not likely YOU.
Unless you are the CEO’s, Bankers, Lawyers, Oprah or Howard Stern…who cares. Maybe Howard has a loophole and can sneak out and spearhead streaming internet to cars.
They say it will save $7 billion. I say only to spend it in a bad way elsewhere.
These are dinosaurs and for the pure speculators. If the regulators are to do anything, they should force both companies to liquidate and give back something to shareholders before it is too late.
They’re merging because they’re scared of Foneshow. We move them to the top of the competitors list in the slide deck, and less than a month later they’re consolidating to fight us.
Ha.
Ha ha – couldn’t agree with you more Howard. From day one, I never thought paying for radio was a good idea.
Howard, you are incorrect. This is as big an investment opportunity that HBO was in 1974.
can this really get approved? there are regulations stating they can be the only two satellite companies for a few more years…
Howard, I’m going to have to disagree. It’s a fixed cost play. Satellite radio is growing faster than any consumer tech ever has. OEMs have long-term agreements for over 50% of new vehicles by 2010. I’m not a CEO, I’m in at the ground level. And I like what I see. More on my blog with specific numbers.
Dead – good luck
their variable cost of talenty and looseness in spending and their inability to keep subscribers past the free zone, make the risk silly for the returnas.
dinosaur
Merger means only one fucked-up, crappy company goes bankrupt – instead of two.
I’m an XM subscriber. I like it. I think they are shitty investments on their own, and potentially decent investments combined. I think their shittiness came from competing with each other in ridiculous ways. As a monopoly, one assumes they will be a little slower to write half-billion dollar checks to has-beens and will be able to raise their prices to profitability.
I’d pay more, I like the product. Overall I’m with you though…why invest in something “potentially decent”???
You nailed it here andy. In the end, this deal gets done and they wont save 7 billion, likely half that as they are media execs after all :)
They will save a fortune not bidding for talent as you say and probably could raise as much as they want in a death spiral convert. there is nothing sexy here though.
Howard, I agree they’ve been relatively loose with their content costs. But the merger will lower variable content costs by increasing the combined company’s buyer power. You mention “their inability to keep subscribers past the free zone” but that is patently false. Looking at XM’s 10-K from 2005, we see that their conversion rate was 57%. In 2004 (when their rates were 30% lower) the conversion rate was 59%. I’m finding it hard to rectify your claims with the numbers being reported.