Recently in Merger News Category

Sirius XM Radio Inc. has been selected by BusinessWeek as one of its "World's Most Influential Companies" for 2008.

The Federal Communications Commission has granted Sirius XM Radio Inc. an extension on the deadline to lease a portion of its channel capacity to third-parties.

There's been more Sirius XM Radio management announcements, this time in wild and wacky world of the Talk and Sports programming.

Here's the Talk and Entertainment rollcall:

• Dave Gorab, VP/Original Talk (Sirius)
• John McDermott, VP/Comedy and Entertainment (Sirius)
• Frank Raphael, VP/News and Operations (Sirius)
• Todd Stack, Sr. Director/Talk Production (Sirius)
• Don "Wicky" Wicklin, Sr. Director/Partner Programming (XM)
• Jason Schramm, Director/Programming Development, with Sr. Directors Kenny Curtis, Craig Schwalb and Maurice Tunick.

These Talk/Entertainment execs will report to Senior VP Jeremy Coleman (from Sirius).

And for the Sports Programming roster:

• Brian Hamilton, VP/Sports Programming (Sirius)
• Doug Mortman, Director/Sports Programming Operations (Sirius)
• Daniel Norwood, Director/NASCAR Radio (Sirius)
• Nick Pavlatos, Director/NFL Radio (Sirius)
• Matt Fishman, Director/College Sports Programming (XM)
• Chuck Dickemann, Sr. Director/MLB Home Plate (XM)
• Steve Torre, Director/Mad Dog Radio (Sirius XM Radio)
• Joey DiFazio, Director/Sports Imaging
• Chris Castleberry, Director/PGA Radio (XM)

The Sports execs will report to Senior VP Steve Cohen (also from Sirius). Both Coleman and Cohen were announced into their positions shortly after Sirius and XM merged.

A recent Associated Press report shows that XM Satellite Radio Inc spent $240k on lobbying in the second quarter of 2008.

Meanwhile, Orbitcast has learned from recent disclosure reports with the House clerk's office that Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. spent approximately $475k on lobbying during the same period.

This brings the total spent on lobbying by Sirius XM Radio Inc. to $715,000 for the second quarter of 2008.

The merger wasn't the only reason for the lobbying - but I'm sure it took a lionshare of activity. Other topics included "copyright issues," and legislative/policies impacting the SDARS licenses (read: merger stuff).

Compare this to the $1.2 Million in lobbying spent by Clear Channel Communications Inc., much of which was in opposition of the Sirius XM merger.

Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays had words about the FCC's approving of the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio at a panel during this week's NAB Radio Show.

"I don't know how they [the FCC] allowed XM and Sirius to merge into a monopoly," said Clear Channel chief Mark Mays (pictured left, next to his father and Clear Channel chairman, Lowry Mays).

Of course, that criticism didn't prevent Clear Channel from revamping their channels on XM following the Sirius XM Radio Inc. merger. The Clear Channel controlled channels are reported to earn the radio conglomerate "seven figure revenue" annually.

Mays continued his remarks about the FCC, "They clearly didn't have the backbone right now to do the right thing." Mays added that "the right thing" would be to mandate that HD Radio be included in all receivers.

I wonder if calling Chairman Kevin Martin, as well as Commissioners McDowell and Tate, as having no "backbone" will encourage the FCC to do "the right thing"?

Mel Karmazin recently held a town hall company meeting to talk about the future of Sirius XM Radio, and below is the full audio from the event.

Karmazin talks about the duplicate channels/programming, the future of the company, the health of the OEM channel and much more.

Listen below:

(Duration: 1 hour)

Thanks Alex!

It seems that the original statement sent out by the FCC wasn't the right one, and so Commissioner Tate has issued a new statement regarding the Sirius and XM merger.

This time around, Tate says that few decisions "have been more difficult" than the Sirius and XM one.

"As a strong supporter of free-markets and limited government regulation, I am predisposed to allow private companies the autonomy to make business decisions without the heavy hand of government regulation," said Tate.

"My personal office received hundreds of phone calls from individual citizens and organizations in at least 30 states," she added. "It seems that every segment of society has an interest in this merger."

Sirius XM Radio Inc. chief Mel Karmazin mocked the National Association of Broadcasters head David K. Rehr in a recent appearance on the Opie & Anthony show, saying that their opposition to the merger might have had a part in its approval.

"We needed the broadcasters to be very aggressive in opposing the merger," said Karmazin [via FMQB].

"One of the things [NAB] did... is they put a banner on their building that said, 'Stop The Monopoly.' We took pictures of it and sent it to everybody who was on our list," said Karmazin.

"Our viewpoint was, the fact that they were doing it... they're not lobbying every merger that goes on, why would they care?"

"If we are a duopoly on our way to a monopoly, by definition, [terrestrial broadcasters] are not in that pie," added Karmazin. "Thank goodness for it and hats off to the head of the NAB. We all owe him. When we all get to toast this merger, I will be celebrating him first."

I think we all owe Mr. David Rehr a big round of applause, don't you think?

[FMQB]

Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM Radio Inc., continued his rounds today with an appearance on CNBC.

It's a good interview, nothing that we haven't heard before, but it's nice to hear it again. Main takeaway that Mel appears to be trying to push: This is now a strong company that is poised to take the marketplace by storm.

I like how he has pushed the fact that Sirius XM Radio is now the 2nd largest radio company in terms of revenue (next to Clear Channel) and the 2nd largest company in terms of subscribers (next to Comcast). Those are impressive soundbites to keep pushing hammering away at.

[Watch the video]

 

FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate has finally issued a statement (technically, two statements) on the now-approved merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

Tate doesn't wax poetically about the merger like Commissioner Copps, her Democratic counterpart. Instead, she focuses purely on the Consent Decree and Sirius-XM's adherence to FCC regulations.

You can read her statements here: 1, 2 (PDF)

On a related note: there is a nasty rumor going around that the FCC is requiring XM to remotely shut down all SkyFi2 receivers, because of the wickedly powerful FM transmitters. That's completely false.

As part of the FCC's Compliance Plan (which will last for 5 years, and require reporting every 3 months), Sirius XM Radio Inc. is required to broadcast on-air notices about non-compliant radios, and will replace radios returned by customers with compliant devices.

[FCC.gov]