A group of creditors have threatened to remove Sirius XM Radio Inc. CEO Mel Karmazin if the company chooses to file for bankruptcy over a striking a deal with an investor that would allow it to remain solvent, reports the Wall Street Journal.Additionally, the WSJ is reporting that a final decision by Sirius XM's Board is expected Monday.
"Creditors will act quickly and definitively if they perceive that management is acting in their own interest and not in the best interest of the estate," Edward Weisfelner, a partner with Brown Rudnick LLP, the law firm representing the creditor group told the Journal.
"The board of directors should carefully consider the ramifications," he added.
In response to the creditor threat, Sirius XM said in written statement: "The management of Sirius XM is continually working to ensure the best possible outcome for the enterprise." (If I remember correctly, this is the first official communication from the company about the current situation.)
Sirius XM's board reportedly met this weekend to weigh on the company's course, including an offer from Liberty Media, with a final decision expected on Monday, reports the Wall Street Journal.
If Mel Karmazin does file for bankruptcy, creditors could ask the bankruptcy judge to remove management and put the company under the stewardship of an independent trustee. Such a move is a difficult one, bankruptcy experts say, as judges tend to be favorable towards management.
But the argument that bankruptcy may be preferable to solvency may be a hard pill to swallow for the company's creditors.
"You have to be a little skeptical when you hear that from the same people who drove the bus into the wall," Weisfelner told WSJ, referring to Sirius XM management. "They can't use bankruptcy at creditors's risk as a 'Hail Mary' pass to keep themselves in power."
The creditor group that Edward Weisfelner represents holds about $173 million in Sirius debt - the same group that agreed on Friday to extend the maturity of the bonds until 2011.
Just the fact that some of Sirius XM Radio's creditors are already contemplating an ouster underscores Karmazin's dwindling support. The decisions made in the next 24-hours will essentially determine both the company's fate, as well as management's.
[Wall Street Journal]
"The board of directors should carefully consider the ramifications," he added.
In response to the creditor threat, Sirius XM said in written statement: "The management of Sirius XM is continually working to ensure the best possible outcome for the enterprise." (If I remember correctly, this is the first official communication from the company about the current situation.)
Sirius XM's board reportedly met this weekend to weigh on the company's course, including an offer from Liberty Media, with a final decision expected on Monday, reports the Wall Street Journal.
If Mel Karmazin does file for bankruptcy, creditors could ask the bankruptcy judge to remove management and put the company under the stewardship of an independent trustee. Such a move is a difficult one, bankruptcy experts say, as judges tend to be favorable towards management.
But the argument that bankruptcy may be preferable to solvency may be a hard pill to swallow for the company's creditors.
"You have to be a little skeptical when you hear that from the same people who drove the bus into the wall," Weisfelner told WSJ, referring to Sirius XM management. "They can't use bankruptcy at creditors's risk as a 'Hail Mary' pass to keep themselves in power."
The creditor group that Edward Weisfelner represents holds about $173 million in Sirius debt - the same group that agreed on Friday to extend the maturity of the bonds until 2011.
Just the fact that some of Sirius XM Radio's creditors are already contemplating an ouster underscores Karmazin's dwindling support. The decisions made in the next 24-hours will essentially determine both the company's fate, as well as management's.
[Wall Street Journal]
Very interesting that they would ask for his removale. I understand the reasoning for it, but at the same time he was a pretty big reason the two companies merged, which I don't know how they would survive otherwise. Its definitely a tough call
Please let this boob get thrown out. He's done so much damage already. He's not responsible for high content contracts? Well he is responsible for a terrible merger, a stock price that is virtually worthless and the complete dumbing down of the music on the XM side. So much so that it's unbearably bad. The unthinkable has happened. I listen to FM radio again, more often than I listen to SDARS because it has better playlists. I still hate the commercials but with the babbling DJ's of Sirius thrust upon me, I'll take the commercials. It's a fair trade off for not hearing the same Winger song 4 times an hour.
Karmazin has shown REPEATEDLY that he cannot be trusted.
Memo to:
Mel,Greenstein,Zellner and the rest of dumbshit programmers
Please just go. Your actions have totally f**ed up the greatest radio broadcasting since the "Underground FM" days of the late 60's & early 70's. Hell maybe the best ever in my 50 years of listening to radio. Their actions show that they are too entrenched in the tired old brand of commercial radio.
Again, just go.
BTW,Take Stern,O&A,& "BUBBA" with you.
They are so "played"
Mel needs to go.
When the companies were apart, XM wasn't doing amazing, but they were certainly doing better than Sirius. More subscribers. Less debt.
Now that the merger happened, Sirius' inept leadership has driven this thing in the ground.
I can't live without my sat. radio, so I hope they figure this thing out. But I don't know how you stay in business with Mel at the helm.
Frrrrrrrrunkis.
With all due respect to Opie and Anthony, the only entertainment show worthy of satellite radio, SIRIUS NEEDS TO FAIL.
Has anyone realized the talk shows that Sirius programmers have put on their MUSIC channels? I am listening to THE PULSE on Sunday and I hear this talk show called "Static Beach" which was nothing more than a bunch of goofy interns laughing at each other's comments in an effort to provide entertainment. Then there's the equally bad Morning Talk Show they put on "20 on 20"
My God, folks, when did talk become more important than the music? What the hell are talk shows doing on the music channels?
We have all discussed this time and time again. Sirius is paid FM Radio. The amount of DJ blabber on all the music channels is enough to drive anyone mad. Again, I stress that creating DJ Personality shows is more important than the music itself.
And speaking of music, must we continue to hear the limited repetitious playlists day after day? THE PULSE plays the same songs day in and day out without any sort of rotating variety. THE DECADES channels are even worse. With thousands of songs in each decade, we only get to hear the top 500 day in and day out.
Jon Zellner ruined XM radio in its final months and he has done equally the same to Sirius. The service is run by old FM programmers who have never gotten their heads out of the clouds or tried to do anything creatively different to make satellite radio stand out on its own. At least XM was born with the notion to make satellite something totally different from FM radio.
I hope somebody takes over Sirius quickly. We need someone with imagination. Someone who can look outside of the FM box. Make satellite radio a music delivery service without DJ banter. Keep the talk shows separate. Give us CD music quality. Then, and only then will you steer listeners away from iPods, HD radio and CDs.
It was and still is, all about the bandwidth... Merging the bandwidth and keeping it together was the objective. Game on.
It's obvious Mel is using the media for disinformation. Why hasn't Mel accepted the Liberty offer? Why bankruptcy if the offer is real? Methinks Ergen has Mel by the shorthair and he's screaming.
As I have said before…
Renegotiate OR Remove These “SHOWS”
1-OPRAH
2-MARTHA
3-O&A (CBS VERSION-sucks + useless as teets on a bull)
4-ALL Foreign language channels.. (You are in America)
5-LOCAL? Traffic and Wthr? (Bandwidth user/loser)
6-Foxxhole (SUCKS.. see #5)
7-Stern’s contract: FIVE day’s a week dude (personal pet-peeve)
8- Eff BASEBALL… Yawn + BIG $$ + Roids = S.H.I.T product
Big money people.. numbers 1,2,and 6. These people are NOT broadcasters and work THIRTY MINUTES a WEEK..
-Good Job Mel. In the years to come the *FULL SPECTRUM of BANDWIDTH* will be seen and will prove the MERGER was the right decision. Either XM or Sirius was going to fall, maybe both. Thanks also to Liberty Media!!!
These are the “lean” years with many GROWING pains, and a HORRIBLE economy. Hang in there people… It will get much better. Personally I am going to buy $250 worth of this stock for pennies/share.
PS. Hartleib is an A$$hol*
It's obvious Mel is using the media for disinformation. Why hasn't Mel accepted the Liberty offer? Why bankruptcy if the offer is real? Methinks Ergen has Mel by the shorthair and he's screaming.
This service will only get better once it is revamped with new management and new programmers.
As of now, with all the complaints that Jon Zellner has handled in both email and phone calls, he still goes by the company policy, "The customer is always WRONG"
If someone new can come in, clean house of all the DJs (imagine the money they would save?), combine the bandwidth and hopefully be able to broadcast chatter-free CD QUALITY music programming to both radios, then you will have a winning formula for which all others will have difficulty competing with.
Right now, FM radio delivers more variety and slightly better sound quality than Sirius.
If he files for bankruptcy and doesn't accept Liberty Media's offer, everyone, and I mean all people involved, shareholders, creditors, subscribers, everyone is going to be pissed the fuck off.
It's time to send a message to Sirius management--file for bankruptcy and you will lose your most loyal customer base, your stockholders.
Most stockholders are also customers of Sirius. If Mel let's his own personal interests outweigh his fiduciary responsibilities, he should face more than lawsuits. Stockholders should hit the internet, cancel their subscriptions, and call for a boycott of the product.
If shareholders threatened this weeks ago, maybe it would have driven a different conclusion than what is unfolding now.
If Mel hasn't taken the offer yet it looks more n more like he is lookin to file for bankruptcy. He is one SOB that will give up without a fight do u think this guy wants any help or is he lookin to destroy this company!! Think about it the merge with xm was so stupid on his part then u have this guy zellner that should be taken by the throat and and beaten till he dies cause this Satellite fm radio sucks and if this company is saved he should be the first to go. He does not care about our emails the only thing he's worried about is if he gets his money.
The only thing I can say is: finally, someone found their spines!
After viewing all the crap on this board, re: the Godhead that certain people have made Mel (and Howard) out to be, some people are finally starting to realize the cancer at the heart of all this.
Mel should be removed, if in his megalomaniacal delusions decides to go down in flames and take the company with him.
The intelligent, and professional choice is to take the best of the offers being tendered, NOT destroy the company along with yourself.
Mel, take your ass-kicking like a man, for once, take your golden parachute and go find some other company to ruin.
And to the fanboys who think Stern is also God: he did not save Sirius! He just works there, and only when he feels like it. 100,000 new subs? Great but not enough to justify a $100 million salary, and $400 million more in stock and whatever else to develop channels.
I too, as certain people have indicated, would like to see the playlists again expanded, the DJs retired, and some of those expensive contracts renegoitiated. Doesn't mean anyone has to get fired, but it does mean some more belt-tightening, in areas where it's needed.
Bye Mel...wish we didn't know ye.
I agree that if Mel and the FM hacks are tossed out the product will get better , but it will take time.
The last poster is wrong because FM radio does not deliver variety like Slacker does and right now Slacker is getting good business from all of the ex satellite radio listeners.
They cannot oust Mel.
He is, after all, the broadcasting genius. Just count the increase in the number of Siriots that occurred on the day the man was hired.
When I came to Sirius, before Howard Stern did, the music channels were great. It got even better when Stern came over, along with Bubba the Love Sponge. The sports programming got better. Sirius NASCAR Radio is consistently quoted as the only place to get real news about the sport. The NFL channel is great to. Once Sirius and XM merged, the music channels became crap. I don't know what happened to the people that program the music, but it stinks. A few channels are OK, but when I put in Lithium, I don't expect to hear U2. Even though I like them. Why am I listening to a Bubba the Love Sponge FM rebroadcast? It is garbage.
Renegotiate contracts, and get Sirius' old programming people back to work. EVEN if you need to give them a raise. They will earn it after Sirius renegotiates all of the expensive contracts it had as XM and Sirius competed for exclusivity.
Creditors are worried about losing their monies--and should renegociate terms to avoid this--If they arent, thats their stupid decision--You cant blame Mel if they wont play ball themselves--Kinda like the unions/auto mess
*******Think of this and please comment*********
ONE OF THOSE CREDITORS STATING THIS THREAT TO MGT. OF SIRIUS IS CHARLIE ERGEN OF ECHOSTAR AS HES THE CREDITOR NOW OF FEB DEBT!!!!! hmmmmm
Why are they not promoting the Jay Thomas show as a future player? Howard loves him, Letterman, the media and the acting world. He's solid.
Folks, John Zellner has ruined the Sirius music programming.
He has been on the phone with people I know who have complained and received massive amounts of email from subscribers who are just plain pissed off.
Yet, he still replies to these complaints by claiming subscribers are happier than ever.
Please continue to send your complaints to Jon at this email address
Jon.Zellner@xmradio.com
Let's hope he is the first to get the axe after Mel.
The Jay Thomas show is great. Very interesting guests and banter. Get rid of the multiple DJ's that chat on the music stations.
There is so much in these comments that I agree with. I won't waste time repeating the points. Let me just add that I haven't seen management make any significant progress at realizing the biggest synergy of the merger....the distribution system. We have two sets of very, very expensive satellites transmitting what is very similar programming. The company needs to either repurpose one of the systems (backseat TV?) or sell it off. Instead Mel has said that technical synergies are a year off. The management needed to start that immediately after the merger.
Instead what they have done is 'nickel & dime' firing of talent and wiping out XM programming. What they save by this is pocket change compared to the technical synergies and it comes with the downside of ticking off subscribers.
Remember just a short time ago when blogs & boards on the internet were filled with people who loved the services and bragged about their installations? Go to this or any board now & what you will find is mostly irate subscribers. The management has thrown away one of the most important assets, the enthusiastic subscribers.
As I often say, no management is this bad. They must have other goals in mind than the best interests of the company.
IMO, the management must go.
What an ugly man.
Sorry, but this is wrong.
While stockholders likely have subscriptions, I don't think a majority or even a significant minority of subscribers are stockholders. I would have to say perhaps maybe, the number of individual stockholders are probably 50,000 or under. That's about 0.0025 ration--or 0.25%, 1/4th of 1%. Not a very significant number. Even if you multiply that number by 10, you're still less than 5%.
In fact, while I don't approve of a company going bankrupt, if Chapter 11 gives the consumers protection from the service going under, yet it gets rid of the people whom by voting for the merger killed some of the best features about both radios who wanted a short term quick "pop", I'm all for it. I feel the merger was pushed on us by these people.
The funny thing is, it's the stockholders who seem to be treating the angry consumers as "pests" and "Stop Whining and Cancel already", but when the shoe is on the other foot, they are quick to express outrage.
Pinball Wizard,
You are so right! The whole thing seems like a calculated attempt to destroy the company; if it isn't, how would anybody be able to tell the difference. The subscribers have been screaming the answers to their problems for months, only to be DEFIANTLY IGNORED!
Do they have the companies best interest in mind? It seems like they have NO interest in the company, other than making sure that it fails.
What are you talking about?
Just because the stations lack the depth they used to have, doesn't mean that they have been "ruined".
Some of us (especially those of us who used to dual subscribe) are very much favored toward this outcome.
Screw the former decades channels.
Screw The City.
Screw Top Tracks (Good riddance).
Screw Lucy (I'm starting to not miss it with Lithium).
Those channels were all horrible.
If you want to orient channels to focus on hits, you have to focus them on playlists that are going to inherently be shallower. I hated hearing some of the obscure stuff I heard on Top Tracks. It was great before it split into Top Tracks/Big Tracks, and then it was just ruined. Too much "fluff".
If I want depth, I'll listen to Deep Tracks. It is still deep, as is The Loft.
Look at the station formats -- many of them that tightened their playlists, did so for a reason -- they ARE hits-oriented stations.
I've emailed Jon several times about how satisfied I am with the changes, and I'll stand by that until my grave.
Pinball Wizard: One of the merger stipulations stated that equipment could not be depreciated. No hardware will become obsolete. Thus, combining infrastructure is not an option. They can combine facilities -- which would save them lots of money (move out of Rockefeller Center).
If they were allowed to, I guarantee they would have axed the Sirius broadcasting platform almost immediately in favor of the XM platform.
Since the merger trashed my favorite music stations, including eliminating The System, the only thing keeping me in this subscription is NHL Home Ice. I've found replacements for everything else via my iPhone. I'm debating whether Home Ice is worth keeping the subscription for.
The merger trashed XM. I hope that the people currently in charge are ousted completely no matter how the financials play out. They have taken a great service and, aside from a very few talk channels, completely effed it up. Half the time when I flip to a music station now there's some dumbarse babbling rather than playing music or every other song is something that doesn't belong on the station. Why would I pay for that? I quit listening to FM for those reasons.
No, it's not "about the bandwidth." These services are and will for the foreseeable future remain separate, in terms of satellites and bandwidth. With nearly 60 percent of radios permanently installed in motor vehicles, changes in the installed inventory of equipment will be slow to take place, as retrofitting new equipment to replace OEM radios is, for all practical purposes, impossible. It would be 10 years, minimum, before Sirius XM could even consider reorganizing its service predicated on the assumption that most listeners have access to a 300 channel, dual-service radio. Mel Karmazin said that himself during the merger hearings.
Besides, interoperable radios, promised months ago, have still failed to materialize, despite the fact that Mel told the FCC he "had one on his desk." Even if they were on the shelves now, why would anyone buy one? Sirius and XM are now virtually identical, so all an interoperable radio would offer are two versions of the same channels.
What this company has done is squander bandwidth by gutting the product chosen by over half of its customers and replacing it with the one preferred by the minority of its customers, all in the arrogant insistence that Sirius management knows better than listeners themselves what listeners want to hear.
So, in reality, bandwidth was used much more wisely before, when two services appealed to different listener groups. Now it's used foolishly, sending out the same stuff over two completely separate networks that, by necessity, will remain separate for years to come.
goodbye mel
you fucked the xmers over remember you said nothing would change 2 years ago this week ?
Ron and Fez Scissors Up.
12-2-3
Funny how the three Opie & HairPlug fanboys that incessantly post here are SOOO sure they know ALL that is wrong with Sirius XM, yet they are blind to the massive failure of their mediocre heroes - dropped in market after market on terrestrial, unable to garner more than a niche audience on satellite.
Oh, please, bestow upon us MORE of your wisdom!!
(And they call US "zombies"? *snicker* )
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Mel K needs to go. I'm tired of paying to listen to FM Radio. Bad sounding FM Radio at that. The highs are shrill and tinny and the lows are muddy. Talk channels sound like they are talking through their nose. Internet radio sounds better by comparison. Sat Radio has the potential of sounding MUCH better. So, kick Mel and Company out and bring in someone that can bring real digital high fidelity to the medium.
Exactly - NOW WHAT??? ANTI-TRUST VIOLATIONS and A CORRUPT US JUDICIAL SYSTEM ISN'T GOING TO HELP EITHER! In my opinion, this was a multi-year conspiricy to consolidate the satellite bandwidth to shun off REAL competition. And to boot, their assests trump the total debt maturity. Where are our US regulators when we need them?!?
HEY MEL U GOT 10 HOURS TO MAKE UP UR FRICKIN MIND AND IF U DARE CHOOSE WRONG WE WILL KICK U TO THE CURB CAUSE AM AND FM RADIO SUCKS AND THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT I LISTEN TO!!!
ONE MORE THING JON ZELLNER MUST GO IF U GO HE IS A SLIMEBALL AND THE ONLY HE CARES ABOUT IS HIMSELF AND NOT THE SUBSCRIBERS!!! IF SATELLITE RADIO GOES TO INTO CHAPTER 11 I AM DONE NOT GONNA WATCH A FAILING COMPANY FAIL ANYMORE!
LONG LIVE XM NOVEMBER 2008!!! U CAUSED THIS MESS BY MERGING NOW U FIGURE A WAY OUT OF IT!!
MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE MEL AND TAKE THE DEAL WITH LIBERTY PAY OFF THE FEB DEBT AND WORK WITH MALONE TO PAY OFF THE REST DON'T CARE ABOUT URSELF GET SOME HELP AND DO WHATS BEST FOR THE COMPANY!!!
If Sirius-XM files Cha[pter 11, they have killed Sat. Radio. As a stockholder in them, it is killing me to watch how this is playing out. Thank you FCC, SEC and increadable mismanagment.
Some of you are so hilarious with how little you know about this process and the industry as a whole. If you were in control, the company would never have made it 6 months. Keep it going though - you give those of us "in the know" something to laugh at these days.
XCOUNTRY,
My knowledge of the technical aspects of dealing with this bandwidth is limited.
Explain this to us further, please....
Can Sirius combine all the bandwidth between the two services, increase its music channels to CD quality and then transmit to BOTH services?
I mean are the services limited by the bandwidth designated to them? Can't Sirius just combine that bandwidth now that they are one company but broadcast its signal so that each designated radio whether it be XM or SIRIUS compatible can accept that signal and all the benefits of the combined bandwidth?
As a shareholder of XM, I voted against the merger with Sirius, because I thought XM would be ruined like Sirius under Mel Karmazin's watch - all of this happened anyway!
I would not shed any tears should Karmazin be ousted. I can only hope that Karmazin is replaced by an individual who would, among others, make Sirius XM more subscriber-friendly.
By the way, isn't it the same Mel Karmazin who merged a small radio chain - Infinity - into a larger radio chan - CBS - and ran that merged company straight into the ground?
No, they can't combine the bandwidth. Just like you can't magically make an AM radio receive FM, XM radios cannot receive a Sirius signal (or vice-versa). That's why half the bandwidth is needed for each service.
In order to use all the combined bandwidth, support for every radio currently in use would have to be scrapped in favor of a new type that could use the full spectrum. Because of all the millions of radios out there (most of which are built in to cars), that's easier said than done.
I can take this one.
Sirius utilizes the PAC CODEC - Perceptual Audio Coder - which the hardware has to decode so that you may hear the audio.
XM utilizes the HE-AAC (aacPlus) CODEC - High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coder - which the XM hardware has to decode so that you may hear the audio.
Sirius hardware can decode PAC, but not HE-AAC. XM hardware can decode HE-AAC, but not PAC (well, technically this is not true - some early units CAN decode PAC, as XM started with it - they switched CODECs, and were smart in the beginning by having CODEC programmable hardware).
Unfortunately, that CODEC programmable hardware went away, and now the hardware hard-decodes the HE-AAC CODEC utilizing an STMicro chipset designated for that function.
If they both utilized the same CODEC, that would be a great first step. They'd also have to utilize the same encryption/decryption algorithm.
And - they don't.
So even if the CODECs were the same, encryption/decryption at a hardware level would still be an issue, unless the satellites could run dual containers to allow the encryption algorithms to be shared between the two tuner platforms (XM and Sirius receiving hardware).
I hope this helps!
" If you were in control, the company would never have made it 6 months. Keep it going though - you give those of us "in the know" something to laugh at these days."
I bet you if I ran programming I would be making subscribers a hell of a lot happier than they are now.
I think most subscribers know how to run Sirius programming better than it does. In fact, I think most of us are already unanimous as to what it will take to make Sirius work.
Yeah, that comment seems pompous and far-fetched but I have no doubt in my mind that even someone like myself could make changes that would make the service far more listenable than it isn't already.
We need someone new in charge with the same vision we have.
People seem to forget that Mel had brought Sirius to the forefront. To be able to purchase your competition, who is larger and older, is an amazing thing. He took Infinity Broadcasting from a small group of radio stations and made them into one of the largest radio networks in the country. Look at Mr. Karmazin's history and see if it isn't eerily similar to what is going on now.
Hugh Panero is sitting back , and laughing at all of this .
NJronbo is right and "pests" is just that.
I have never been involved in broadcasting but I know I could do a better job in programming Classic Rock,MoTown Soul,and Uncensored Comedy than the pinheaded programmers that SiriusXM has on the payroll now. I damn sure know I could hire better programmers and that's a fact.
The other day I was listening to "Deep Tracks (XM ch 40) and they had some comedian(no name comedian at that) yakking for at least ten minutes!!! On a rock channel??????
What are these people doing?????
The only hope we loyal subscribers (and I am a stockholder BTW) have is to INSIST on total removal of Karmazin,Greenstein, and Zellner.
Some of us give a shit about quality programming. That's why I subscribed in the first place DAMNIT!!!
XM subscriber since Feb 2002, Stockholder since 2005
I love how out of touch some of these comments are. People are claiming that XM was doing fine without Sirius. How could Sirius have positioned themselves to purchase what was once their toughest competition and market leader if XM was doing so well?
XM blew it years ago when they failed to bring over Stern. The only reason Sirius is still in business is because of that deal.
I could care less about those two bozos O&A, but if satellite loses Stern, they lose me and millions of other subscribers. Mel knows this and so do the other parties involved in this deal.
Recondo, you take charge of all those channels. I know exactly what to do with the DECADES channels including a few ideas that the folks of Sirius wouldn't dream of doing.
To the future owners of Sirius Radio who are reading this thread....
Hire people like us. We will work cheap. We aren't looking for day jobs. We aren’t looking for permanent job positions. Get us into a room, and ask us questions. I think we will give "those in the know" a run for their money and you can run Sirius far more efficiently and inexpensively than you are now.
...don't think for a moment I am kidding about this.
repstein@hometheaterforum.com
Yes, it may take 10 years or more to do something other than redundant transmitting....but that's 10 years after they start. They haven't started!!!! Right now about half the radios activated are a growing problem that the company will have to deal with someday. The problem gets worse every day.
BREAKING NEWS 5:23 PM OFF THE (WSJ, YAHOO, AND FINACIAL TIMES): LIBERTY CLOSE TO A WITH SIRIUS FOR AN INVESTMENT AND A MAJOR STAKE LIBERTY IS POISED TO BEAT OUT ERGEN FOR CONTROL THOUGH THE TWO SIDES ARE STILL AT THE TABLE A DECISION IS TO BE MADE TUESDAY ATFER THE COLSE OF THE BUSINESS DAY!!
To the rabid xm'ers out there: 3/4 of the debt that SIRI is struggling with repaying is XM's. They spent stupid money on stupid things like a buying a building in DC, as well as outsourcing everything from advertising to interactive. They have whopping fines from illegal technical violations that SIRIUS took on as part of the merger. XM staffers who got let go also gave themselves sweet severance packages. Thye might have had more subs when the two companies merged but they were running on fumes financiallyt. Thee precious programming you complain about...John Zellner was an XM'er to start with. Get a clue.
As Adam and SuperH said, there is just no way existing radios can get the service they're not designed to receive, and the company has known that all along, of course.
XM's is generally considered the more robust platform, so if they were going to do anything, I'd assume it would be to eventually phase out the Sirius satellites and just switch everyone over to XM, then sell off the Sirius license to someone who will actually run it as a separate service to give customers a choice -- just as the FCC intended to begin with. But that, if it ever happened, would be years in the future for reasons already detailed.
This should not be a "my service is better than yours" discussion. People like Sirius, and people liked XM. If Clear Channel buys two radio stations in the same market (and in many markets they own far more than that), they do not just switch them all over to the same format, yet that's what Sirius XM has in essence done. Management's view was that listeners wouldn't notice the difference, wouldn't care, or would just grin and bear it and keep paying the bill.
As far as whose debt is whose, who gives a damn? No one with a lick of sense is going to argue that either of these companies was well managed. What does that have to do with programming, and who signed up for what? Corporate takeovers do not normally involve the replacement of product. You use different brand names to address different market segments.
Anonymous | February 16, 2009 7:13 PM | Reply
....To the rabid xm'ers out there: 3/4 of the debt that SIRI is struggling with repaying is XM's. ....
You are correct. Not to mention XM making the Inno -against the rules and having to pay record companies... Yeah XM was sooo damn good. Karmazin only wanted the spectrum and subscribers. Hugh Panero and XM is the real goat here.
The way I see it. XM's debt and shit programming fucked up Sirius. I was content with Sirius programming... I tried the "best of XM" for 2 weeks, it sucked. ....GONE
for you who want karmazin gone, who should take his place, and can whoever takes mel's place do a better job under the current conditions?
and you people also need to do your research- stern was signed AFTER mel showed up at sirius.
What you have said is not correct.
First, at the time of the merger, XM's stock was worth far more than Sirius' stock, so they had value to offset their debt. Of course, that value is now essentially gone under Sirius's stewardship, with the stock trading for pennies. Second, this was a "merger of equals" agreed to by both companies. If XM was such a drain to Sirius, why did Sirius want to merge with them? Were your assertion true, Sirius would have stood by and watched their competitor die on the vine rather than merging. The analysts' opinion on this deal was that XM did, in fact, have somewhat more debt, but the company was healthier overall.
Calling what other people liked "shit programming" or posting a list of channels you personally don't listen to and saying they should be deleted is the stuff forum rants are made of, but it's simplistic and pointless. We could all come up with a list of things others like, but we don't, and say our personal taste is better. Discussions like that happen on playgrounds during recess every day of the week.