Some of the fat cats in the Senate think that the Sirius Satellite (NYSE:SIRI) merger with XM Satellite (NYSE:XMSR) might be OK if the combined company would give up a large portion of its spectrum. According to The Wall Street Journal, these legislators would propose that the firms "divest as much as half of their combined radio spectrum as a condition of their proposed merger."
Although it is not clearly articulated, the reason for the proposal is so that the US government could, if it wanted to, sell that spectrum to another party to start a new satellite radio company. Even that option would allow the government to view XM plus Sirius as something short of a monopoly.
The Senate and the FCC actually know better than to push their deal. Over the year-and-a-half that the merger has been pending, the two companies have gone from being in bad financial share to being in a dire set of circumstance. Each company has well in excess of $1 billion in debt. Neither has ever made a dime and their losses last quarter were not encouraging.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2008 @ 2:27PM
OldGaDawg said...
This should have been a done deal over a year ago. The DOJ - after a year plus finally got it correct. But because of government officials and special interest groups that had there say at the first still throwing money into Senators pockets to play this out till not only SAT RADIO might not be around for long but "We the people... are left without".... because of something that could be beneficial to all in years to come.
Lets stop the bleeding and approve this.... Thanks, O.D.
5-23-2008 @ 11:30AM
Salman Khan said...
This is a TEST Comment
Salman Khan
Salman Khan
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