Money well spent. Better than taking Opie and Ron to Gordon Ramsey's tasting table.

Lin Lon,....!!

They are tossing around the cash as if they thought they had it gathering dust in the bank! Then people wonder why this management team is in the process of losing the company.

I would have thought that they had spent a whole lot more than $1.2 million. Given the money that has been thrown around by the satrad companies a mere $1.2 million is a drop in the bucket. In the meantime, the merger process has created unbelievable confusion among potential users of satrad. Being confused, they simply don't buy anything until the issue is settled. I went to BestBuy this weekend and the satrad area was a dead zone. There were no point of sale displays, special packaging or anything else that would compel someone to make a purchase. This merger thing has got to be settle soon, one way or the other.

>>> I went to BestBuy this weekend and the satrad area was a dead zone. There were no point of sale displays, special packaging or anything else that would compel someone to make a purchase. This merger thing has got to be settle soon, one way or the other.

While I'm sure some people are waiting on the merger (confused, thinking it actually affects their choice in some way), retail was already on life support when the merger was announced.

The reality is that retail was never going to be the way people buy satellite radios -- OEM installs are. We were all excited in the early days about XM's soaring retail sales, but the truth is that it is an overwhelmingly OEM phenomenon.

For the average consumer, they need the OEM promo experience to "sell" them on the concept, and most people just do not want another box hanging off their dash. So, they'll wait until they buy a new car to give it a try. Then, half become customers.

Retail is not where this business is. Both XM and Sirius made the mistake of believing it would be. SIRI's mistake was costly, in that they foolishly hired Stern for 3/4 billion based on the assumption that retail mattered. But XM made a terrible mistake in ramping up fixed costs, too, and when retail died, they were stuck with those costs, which they're now busy trying to get out from under.

>>>they foolishly hired Stern

The sole reason Sirius is buying XM and saving the XMSR shareholders. The question is what are you going to do after the merger?

Right.

Sirius, with its few quarters worth of cash and a billion in upcoming capex, couldn't save your local taco stand.

Stern was the dumbest business deal I've seen in a very long time. Since he was hired, Sirius has reported (as of this month) 2.5 Billion in net losses.

You simply cannot argue with the facts. Stern has not solved ANY problem for Sirius, other than to force them to find a merger partner (XM) who can buy them some time before the merged company runs out of cash. XM, by agreeing to this merger, insures its own failure as it is dragged down with SIRI's financial problems.

Stern was the dumbest business deal I've seen in a very long time.

Ahh, yet another laughable 5000 RPM anti-SIRI spin from Stack Pointer.

You simply cannot argue with the facts indeed. If the "dumbest business deal" hadn't happened, there would be no Sirius today, let alone the market leader in Sat Rad.

>>>they foolishly hired Stern

The sole reason Sirius is buying XM and saving the XMSR shareholders. The question is what are you going to do after the merger?

What Merger?

So does everyone hate sirius and xm? All i hear is alot of bitching and whining. give them some time, they are doing what is necessary to run a bussiness. and 2.5 billion in debt will be made back in 2 years...and thats without an alternative cash flow. I am sure they have something in the works...

>>> If the "dumbest business deal" hadn't happened, there would be no Sirius today

This is not a true statement.

When Stern was hired, they had a half billion in cash on hand and debt of $400M. They were burning 80M/q, that's true -- but their growth was starting to ramp. Obviously, they would not be sitting at 8M subs today, but there is no reason to assume that their growth (from 600K subs) would not have ramped significantly. Before Stern was hired they expected to hit a million subs that year.

Even had they only achieved 3-4M subs by now, they would have been in better financial condition without Stern. While I was highly critical of SIRI's management at the time, I made posts then that I did not believe they were in danger of bankruptcy prior to hiring Stern.

Had they hired Mel without having hired Stern (which despite claims to the contrary, was possible), they would be in far better financial shape today without Stern. As it now stands, they're headed to 2 billion in debt.

Like so many, you seem confused -- assuming that more subscribers is always better. It is not. Fewer subscribers acquired more cost effectively and without increasing fixed costs by $150 Million/year, would have been a far better outcome for Sirius.

The rather idiotic belief, by Sirius_Rich and others, that Sirius is "buying" is simply a misunderstanding of the transaction. More importantly, it isn't so much that Stern made it possible as it is he made it NECESSARY -- Sirius has a huge, 3/4 billion dollar underperforming asset, and the only way to leverage it is to get Stern on XM as well. There are obviously other factors, but this one was predictable (and well before the merger, I posted that it would totally make sense for Mel and XM to get together and let XM chip in $20M/year for Stern -- as it turned out, XM management was dumb enough to pay more than that for him).

How did I know that the above post was from Stack after someone bashed Sirius-rich. Oh my.

>>>>>> 2.5 billion in debt will be made back in 2 years..

Remarks like this, while never surprising, are totally without basis.

These companies have yet to make one cent -- let alone to start repaying debt. And the merger isn't going to change that fact of life. If they merge, they will come out the other side with 3 billion in debt, and still be burning cash at the rate of $80M/quarter, plus SIRI's billion in upcoming capex.

There is every likelihood that 5 years from now the combined company's debt will still be more than 3 billion dollars.

"Even had they only achieved 3-4M subs by now, they would have been in better financial condition without Stern. While I was highly critical of SIRI's management at the time, I made posts then that I did not believe they were in danger of bankruptcy prior to hiring Stern. "

Remarks like this, while never surprising, are totally without basis.

Ah yes... my daily reminder as to thy NOT to read the comments on Orbitcast.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

More Plundering!!!
I saw some of the XM flunkies at the Grammy's last week (you know who you are). I can't wait for the merger to go thru so Mel can take charge and stop the plundering at XM. These bunch of yo-yos are starting to make XM look like Tyco.
Bring on the merger!!

XM spending $1.2M in lobbying is better money spent than Sirius spending $2 Million in a useless giveaway contest.

http://investor.sirius.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=152466

"Arkansas Couple Each Receive Million Dollar Prize from SIRIUS"

That was one of the dumbest expenditures Sirius made (other than for Stern).

But there is no way in hell Karmazin would have done something like that -- the Two Million Dollar Giveaway was a Joe Clayton special.

When it happened, you couldn't find so much as a blurb in the media about it. Even more stupid was allowing the recipient of the first million to decide who gets the second. "Can I give it to my wife?" Well, duh, I guess that would be my choice.