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Satellite Radio (XM, Sirius, and Stations) MERGED

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exhawg;756314; said:
A monopoly in the satellite radio market doesn't mean much. If you don't want to pay what they want listen to regular radio. It works fine for me. Hell AT&T's phone monopoly wouldn't even matter now. I have 2 phones and neither run over normal phone lines.
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That is why I was thinking it wouldn't be a problem. I see it getting approved, just will take awhile for it all to get worked out. I found one article interesting as most are saying it is a merger, one is saying sirius bought xm, which makes sense if indeed xm shareholders are gettin the amount of sirius stock that would be equal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0y3ia.ul6qM&refer=home

Sirius to Acquire Larger Rival XM for $4.57 Billion (Update1)

By Christopher Stern
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., the second-largest U.S. pay radio service, agreed to buy its larger rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. for $4.57 billion in stock, combining the only two companies in the industry.
Mel Karmazin, chief executive officer of Sirius, will be CEO of the combined company and Gary Parsons, chairman of XM, will keep that position as well, New York-based Sirius and Washington-based XM said today in a statement.
 
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exhawg;756314; said:
A monopoly in the satellite radio market doesn't mean much. If you don't want to pay what they want listen to regular radio. It works fine for me. Hell AT&T's phone monopoly wouldn't even matter now. I have 2 phones and neither run over normal phone lines.
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a monopoly in the satellite radio means a lot to washington and the sec. your statement about switching over to terrestrial radio is part of the rub. sirius and xm will argue that they are not so much competing against each other as they are competing against terrestrial radio. the two companies will need to argue that the market is broader than it appears; otherwise, it will certainly fall to a breach of antitrust.

the sec denied a similar merger a few years ago when dish tv and directv attempted to merge. they couldn't sufficiently argue that their competition was the cable market as a whole. instead, it was found (in part) that their competition was inside satellite television... each other. had the sec found that their competition was broader, the sec would have likely allowed the merger to go through. sirius and xm have the same issue.

sirius and xm have been playing with the idea of merging for quite some time. they were likely testing the waters in washington. that they have announced that they would like to merge, the waters may have been found to be warm. it would be great for customers. cheaper prices and a consolidation of better technologies. we'll see.
 
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StooGrimson;756319; said:
I think it'll be a fight, but it should get approved eventually. A merger doesn't limit listening options for customers. There's still free (crappy) radio, digital radio, and internet radio to choose from. There's some programming available on free radio that's also on Sirius and XM such as ESPN sports radio, Fox News, and some local stations like WLW in Cincy, so it's not like Sirius and XM have exclusive rights to all of their content. My biggest worry would be that it would get approved, but the Feds would somehow find a way to regulate programming.
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That is what I was trying to say...you just said it better :) plus you also have hd radio becoming powerful also. you are right about the fear of regulation though.
 
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StooGrimson;756319; said:
I think it'll be a fight, but it should get approved eventually. A merger doesn't limit listening options for customers. There's still free (crappy) radio, digital radio, and internet radio to choose from.
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the customers are not the only issue, at least not directly. permitting the merger between xm and sirius would, in the sec's eyes, make it all but impossible for any competing satellite radio company to succeed or any new satellite radio company to be created. as i stated before, this limitation is why the two companies must argue that their competition is not so much each other but instead terrestrial radio, hd radios, mp3s, in-car dvd players, and so on. the primary problem for the merging of the two companies is the precedent set by dish tv and directv. that hurdle is huge. again, as i stated before, that sirius and xm have made it public that they plan to merge possibly means that they are seeing the merging as greenlighted.

otherwise, it's just a market ploy. that's always a possibility.
 
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OSU_Buckguy;756390; said:
you're not forced to pay for it. regardless, i think that $13 for sirius is a pittance for all of the programs and music (music without commercials) that they offer.
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I got the radio for my birthday last year (XM) and a 6 month subscription, once that runs out in April I will let it go.
 
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OCBucksFan;756401; said:
I got the radio for my birthday last year (XM) and a 6 month subscription, once that runs out in April I will let it go.
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i didn't realize that gifts were rip-offs. i know what you're saying: you feel that $13 is too much to pay for the programming you listen to. you are definitely in the minority on that one, however. most persons i've run across (who have or have had it) have stated that they will never go without it. if you're not much of a talk radio person, i can certainly see why it doesn't seem like a good value. if i want to listen to music without commercials, i pop in a cd or hook up my ipod. if i want to listen to talk radio, terrestrial radio doesn't even begin to compete with what satellite radio offers.
THEWOOD;756404; said:
does anyone know at what stock share price if so?
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the merger has not been agreed upon, but i think the discussed stock buyout price is $17 for xm.
 
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