Following the successful merger between Sirus Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Inc., chief executive Mel Karmazin hinted that he would consider selling the newly minted company in a recent interview with the New York Times.Karmazin told the Times his goal is turn Sirius XM Radio into a profitable business, something he suggests is just a year or two away. "Then we can argue about what the company is worth," he said.
But he would consider selling Sirius XM like he has the ventures he has run before?
"I'm not a visionary; I'm an operator," Karmazin told the Times. "And I've been a seller. The bankers all want the next transaction."
[New York Times via FMQB]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
And that would be the end of commercial free SDARS as we knew it. Clear Channel would scoop it up, toss ads all over it, and you fucking Pests & Zombies would be left with your hack radio jocks.
This is why you should have voted against the "merge" monopoly. 2 years you will have NO commercial free satrad. It'll be free and chocked full of fucking ads. HAHA
"HAHA" ummm dumbass
just the fact that you use my name gives me the satisfaction that i got under your skin!!!!
is the Siriusbuzz website down?
Good! Sell it for $4/share. Bargain basement!
GOOD AND MAKE SURE THAT ITS A CEO THAT DOESNT SELL OUT HIS SHAREHOLDERS AND DUMP CHEAP SHARES AND OH YAH....MAKE SURE THAT HE DOESNT REGARD HIS SHAREHOLDERS AS UNSOPHISTICATED....IE.....STUPID.....BTW.....HE CANT SELL IT NOW AND I WOULD GUESS THAT THERE IS LANGUAGE IN THE MERGER THAT MAY NOT LET HIM....YOU THINK THAT WE WAITED THIS LONG....CAN U IMAGINE IF SAY CBS BROADCASTING WANTED US......THE CRAP WE JUST WENT THROUGH WITH THE FCC.....HERE COMES CHESTER FUCKIN DAVENPORT AGAIN AND JESSE JACKSON WITH THEIR HANDS OUT TO GREESE.....I LOVE THAT WE DIDNT GIVE THEM CRAP
Ha! Ha! No one is going to buy this piece of shit company. Mel knows that it will ultimately fail - I love this!
Yeah, why do you think he bought 2M shares at such a horrible price? He figures he can sit on it a year or two at most, since given the momentum both companies were seeing lately the stock's sure to go up a couple bucks, then he can dump it all on the way out when it's quadrupled to $4 a share.
There's a reason he looks like a used car salesman.
If he gets a good price for the company he should sell it.
I would prefer that it not come to that.
But I also want to make some money.
I would rather he sell it, than do what he did when he ran all his other companies into the ground. Then Sirius/XM might stand a chance.
I too, do not want SatRad to turn into TerRad; you know, 18 minutes of commercials each hour, payola playlists, the same 200 consultantized songs played over and over and over again. That will be the death of it, and I am afraid that Mel is looking to do just that.
He hets this company profitable y the end of 2010, then he'll sell it for 20 billion or about $ 5 -6 a share.
Great... next we find out he sold it for .75 a share!
Hey, has the XMSiriusMonopoly.org website been taken down? Where am I going to get all that good hysterical propaganda now? I guess I will just have to rely solely on AC.
http://xmsiriusmonopoly.org/
I would estimate that the business is now worth 11-13 B + debt. of 2.4B - cash.
Roughly 4.00 a share.
Mel said " They, of course, are the shareholders and in Sirius’s case, they are a vocal lot. Unlike most companies — whose shareholder base is 80 percent big institutional investors and 20 percent personal, retail investors — Sirius’s shareholder base is turned upside-down. As a result, many of the radio network’s fans and customers are also its owners. They fill chat rooms online and have made the stock a volatile one. “A lot of them are unsophisticated, but they have a passion for the company,” he said."
Plowboy sez: " Lucky for you the average investor is so unsophisticated or you wouldn't have had billions of dollars dumped into this shit hole of an investment you pompous fucking asshole"
Mel... some people here have lost their smallish life savings believing in you, and then you say shit like that? ..what a fuck you are if the shares hit $10.00 tomorrow.
Why would this be a surprise to anyone???
This is the epitome of Mel Karmazin. He's a businessman and a salesman.
He WILL sell SIRIUS-XM, it is a matter of WHEN.
“A lot of them are unsophisticated, but they have a passion for the company,” he said. (Mel's quote in the interview).
Not to be mean, but this line speaks volumes about SIRI (as a investment) over its lifetime. There were *WAY* too many uneducated retail investors in SIRI pumping the stock, believing that "content and subscribers at any price" was going to make them millionaires.
Then reality set in.
Hopefully they still have time to clean up the mess.
Mel or whoever at Sirius XM won't have much control if somebody makes up their mind to buy it. That's how it works for publicly traded stocks. My take is what I felt all along that in the not too distant future it will likely be sold or at least an attempt will be made by a large media company to buy it. It is worth many times the value based of subscriptions alone versus the extremely high advertising based value. It would take a lot of money, but it could be bought out. The listening public would have to go back to the same old sack of shit as before for radio. If Sirius XM was to have, let's say, a 25%-75% mix of commercial and noncommercial channels then it would increase it income and thus its value to such a point that practically nobody could afford to buy it out. The commercial channels would be free while the noncommercial channels would cost, but would include all of the premium stuff (Nascar, MLB, Stern if he's still with them, NFL, etc). Car manufacturers would line up to install satrad in all cars like it does with AM-FM. Then Sirius XM could really fly.
My guess as to "when" is that it's on the blocks now, and will be sold before the end of the year, or as soon as they can jimmy the numbers so they can show a paper profit. It will take 6 - 8 months to get through the hurdles, then it will be a nice Christmas present for CBS next year.
Paul in FL: "The commercial channels would be free while the noncommercial channels would cost, but would include all of the premium stuff (Nascar, MLB, Stern if he's still with them, NFL, etc)."
I , and several other posters, have mentioned this a few times before.
It would make perfect business sense to do this. That way advertisers are guaranteed a huge audience, since the channels would be free. Knowing Mel as an advertising guru, I would expect him to do something like this in the future if he doesn't sell.
Did you just realize that selling the company after he fixes it was his plan the whole time? This company isn't going to be sold for a very long time, it hits bankruptcy first. If there are institutional investors, that's why they're in the game.
Did you morons think that Sirius XM was just a special love affair for Mel?
Maybe you are all unsophisticated like he said you were.
Sorry, that post above at 10:39 was mine.
Ryan, any way to make it so we have to log back on to post?
I believe it would have to be a company with a history in radio broadcasting that would buy the company. I don't know, but I foresee several NAB members such as Clear Channel, CBS, etc. all teaming up to buy the company, with each buying a percentage. By having several companies buying a piece that would get them around any sort of anti-competitive issues. Also, regulatory approval would most likely come at a fraction of the time that it took Sirius & XM to merge; most likely 6 to 8 months. As someone mentioned, I foresee them applying a model of having the option to continue getting commercial free music, but also having a ad-based free service.
It would be the irony of all ironies to see things play out like this since both Sirius-XM and these various NAB members fought each other like they did to prevent the merger in the first place, only to have these NAB companies come around and buy out the merged company.
"selling the company after he fixes it"?
Fixes it? Mel has killed the satradio industry.
I hate to say it, but it isn't looking good for satellite radio. I don't trust this jack ass at all he could give a rat ass about Sirius XM. I hate to say it but I see dark days ahead, I would be very surprised if the company stays on the air past 2014. I hate it when CEO's ruin a good company.
Ryan , why don't you just change the default name to
ANONYMOUS BASHERS.
That's all that post replies here now. The site has become useless for
reading intelligent discussion on SATRAD
bing bang boom!!!
i went there once. right turn right right turn mel is a daddy to me HA HA twick
ROFL he doesn't know, Anonymous Coward is befoon, chick a do dood de
take that mel
You know, if you read the article, he didn't really say he was going to sell the company. The writer implied it, but all Mel said was that the Bankers always want the next deal. I'd hardly say Mel hinted he would sell the company. That's not to say he wouldn't consider such a deal, but the headline on this post is slightly misleading.
By the way, I don't quite understand some of the comments above. If you don't like Mel because you think he ruins the product, that may or may not be a fair subjective complaint. But didn't shareholders make out very well after the CBS/Viacom merger? I think they did really well.
If he gets this company to make a profit in a couple of years, the valuation metrics will all change dramatically, and so will the stock price. I'm betting he does just that.
I don't care at all about the investors, I'm pleased as punch you're all losing money. Mel doesn't care about SDARS, never did. He created a monopoly and will sell it off, that's what Mel does. Then it's FM radio with a national footprint, yeah.
And us pests & zombies will still have our hack shock jocks without who neither company would exist today.
Mel is the Man!
I wasn't finished.
Mel is the most honest executive ever!
This guy rocks.
Putting his money where his mouth is. Always creating value.
SIRIUS XM is so lucky to have him!
Rose colored glasses OFF now, dream time is over. Back to the reality of Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin and his staff killing off satradio via "merge" MONOPOLY schemes.
GOOD AND MAKE SURE THAT ITS A CEO THAT DOESNT SELL OUT HIS SHAREHOLDERS AND DUMP CHEAP SHARES AND OH YAH....MAKE SURE THAT HE DOESNT REGARD HIS SHAREHOLDERS AS UNSOPHISTICATED....IE.....STUPID.....
LOL!! You guys have been totally SCREWED!! Not only has MEL been dry humping you guys as his UNSOPHISTICATED MERGER BITCHES. LOL!! But, now even a third grader can see what he has set in place.
First, he only takes ONE FREEKIN' day to effectively consolidate the SECURED DEBT into a very small handful of entities, while providing the UNSOPHISTICATED Common Shareholder a complete wax job in the process.. But then he tells you that it was in YOUR BEST INTEREST for the companies to hastily close the deal without taking some time to shop around for a deal. So he lends out your equity to provide the short sellers with a comfortable profit. But, in doing so.. He has now placed the majority of the Secured Debt into only a couple of hands.
It is important to understand this transaction. Because in the event of the filing of a petition. (Which is only a matter or when, not if). Then it is very important to not have you Secured Debt laying around all over the place being controlled by hundreds of entities. No, if you can get the majority of your debt under control of a few friendly entities. Then your Bankruptcy goes much more smoothly.. And of course, at the end of the day.. It's those Secured Creditors that will end up controlling, and owning the combined entity after the BK.
Then, of course, they keep Mel and his cronies on the payroll, and provide Mel & Co. a nice percentage ownership in the DEBT FREE PROFITABLE entity. A ownership percentage that will make Mel's Common Stock losses look like a drop in the bucket.
The real indicator here was the fact that they acted so quickly to renegotiate the debt. The deal was already in place, and they didn't even shop it around. Now the majority of the debt is owned by a very few entities, and this will make any BK proceeding much easier.
Everyone seems so confused about the terms and the timeline of the refinancing. Because it just doesn't make any sense, unless you understand where this is heading, and how much MONEY Mel will make when they sell it after a BK.
And so it goes,
PCSTEL
pump and dump, DUPED.