Posted on 02/10/2009 7:47:30 PM PST by Red Badger
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sirius XM Radio Inc has been working with its advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing, the New York Times reported on its website on Tuesday, citing people close to the company.
The move could put pressure on satellite television company EchoStar Corp, which reportedly holds a substantial amount of Sirius XM debt. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that EchoStar chief Charles Ergen made an offer to take control of the satellite radio company late last year, but he was rebuffed.
Sirius officials did not respond to several telephone and email messages, and EchoStar declined comment.
Sirius has been working with restructuring expert Joseph A. Bondi of Alvarez & Marsal and bankruptcy lawyer Mark Thompson of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett to help prepare a Chapter 11 filing, the New York Times reported, adding that a filing could come within days.
A Simpson, Thacher spokeswoman declined comment, and Bondi was not immediately available for comment.
Sirius has also been working with investment bank Evercore Partners, the newspaper said. Evercore could to be reached immediately.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
this is hugh and sirius
well I suppose its back to Pandora for my music. It was a good idea but they wasted way too much money and projected an exponetial growth in subscribers which just didn’t happen.
Morons.
Charlie comes across like a country bumpkin; folksy and totally unpolished.
However, I’ve always found it interesting that he used to be a professional poker player. Charlie is smart, tough business guy, and I wouldn’t want to “play” against him.
I love satellite radio. We bought a new SUV that had satellite radio on board, and I’ve barely listened to a CD since, and I used to always listen to burned CDs.
It’s surprising to me that they aren’t doing better, because it’s a great service and not at all expensive. I hope satellite radio doesn’t go under, because that will be the only hope for talk radio if the left gets their way.
There’s a new picture beside the dictionary entry for Pyrrhic victory - the SiriusXM logo
Great product, poor management foresight. They tied the company too closely to the US domestic auto industry instead going after the mobile market.
I’m stuned.........
“I hope satellite radio doesn’t go under, because that will be the only hope for talk radio if the left gets their way.”
Hmm, if I were wearing a tinfoil hat right now...
Personally I like Sirus Sinatra and 80 music
Yeah Hair Nation is awsome
I hope a solution is out there. Satellite radio is an innovation that has millions of users.
Her's hoping they reorg their way out of this money problem and keep providing their service.
I get XM with my DirecTV. Everyone who has it does........
I can’t see Rush and Hannity and all the others crammed in with Howard Stern..............
I thought they were nuts to pay Stern a hundred million. And it’s pretty stupid to broadcast from the priciest location in the priciest city in the country, when they could have just as easily headquarter in some abandoned strip mall in New Jersey. Nevertheless, I enjoy several of their channels and will be sorry to see them go, if indeed they do.
I couldn’t function without Sirius:
Patriot Radio
Fox Radio
NFL Radio
Liquid Metal
Lithium
Classic Vinyl
A space in an abandoned strip mall in NJ would cost you SERIOUS $$$ these days too. Jersey blows too.
This is Chapter 11 not Chapter 7...........
It’s not “free” as DirecTV XM isn’t “free” either. It’s part of the price..........
I love the music, but they have crushing debt and once new car sales started tanking their market shrunk badly.
Of course, you are correct. Nothing is free, including the air pump at the Amoco station...
remember.. we are in a struggling economy..worse than the depression!!! no one can afford a luxery like sat radio!
only 92.4% of us Americans are employed....
It’s crazy. We all love it and its going under... They are definitely doing something wrong.
Obama could save satellite radio by pushing the Fairness Doctrine. If local AM talk stations are deprived of conservative talk radio, satellite radio might be the only means to get uncensored news from over the Obama Curtain.
I went without Sirius for almost a year...FM is the same six songs with 30 minutes of commercials every hour...CDs get tiresome...AM radio cuts in and out...
They had better find a way to save it...I love the Patriot Channel (Wilkow), Fox Talk, Radio Classics, FamilyNet, the Roadhouse, Area, Spectrum, the 40s channel, the classical music...and Elvis!!!
When satellite radio started I said it was just a bankruptcy waiting to happen.
Wrong business model.
It should have been FREE to listeners, and anyone should have been allowed to make receivers for the service. If done that way every walkman, cellphone, mp3 player, boombox, car radio...etc would have the ability to listen in. Selling the right to broadcast on the sats and being able to sell blocks of ad time could have brought in lots of $$$ because it would have quickly exceeded the popularity of all AM/FM stations combined.
My first thought as well on this thread.
I listen to Internet radio in the car all the time on my iPhone 3G.
Satellite radio is transmitted over the airwaves, thus it falls under the FCC. Don't think that Rush and others will find a refuge in space from the Censorship Doctrine.
I've now got three receivers, one in my car, one in my wife's car and one in the house. It will be a shame if Sirius goes under but at least I can take solace in the fact that I didn't fall for the "lifetime subscription" offer they were pitching all of last year.
I think the real undoing of satellite radio was the hundreds of millions of dollars they paid to Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and NFL rights, among others. They should have stuck to the commercial-free music model.
The Howard Stern deal was a good sign that they lacked management talent.
Of course, it does take special skill to bankrupt a monopoly.
They wasted buckets of money on expensive personalities like Howard Stern, Oprah, and sports like NFL, MLB, rather than focus on core offerings: Music, Talk Radio, and News - all of which would be far cheaper.
Excellent insight. The potential for Sirius is enormous and having a free service with small blocks of ads would have made it an actual improvement over commercial radio.
With wi-fi becoming more-and-more intergrated (with cell-phone towers), I could see internet-based wi-fi radio becoming more mainstream (IMHO).
Oh the Sean Hannity!
Darn darn and double darn, I SOOOOO love my XM radio and will be devastated if I can’t get it anymore.
Hey, I don’t mind a monthly bill for Sat radio because I can get in my car and listen to the same station all across the USA and Canada with no static.
Drive drive drive, I don’t get bored.
I don’t have to try to find a station where people speak English. I cam listen to the 50’s station or the 60’s station or talk radio or Fox News of whatever pleases me. Cheaper than TV too.
Of course, it does take special skill to bankrupt a monopoly.
LOL Good point.
Also, there is NO lifetime subscription available for the MIRGE Satellite Radio which apparently carries both XM & Sirius.
We've been reading online postings at other forums about the new MIRGE satellite radio, and were just astounded to learn that its only a CAR radio -- that you'd have to buy extra stuff to use the MIRGE at home.
VERY strange people running this company, even after the two, Sirius & XM merged.
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