Ah... this will create some responses here. Here we go...

[Walter Graff]

Sorry I typed lockit instead of lockin

http://xmradio.com/lockin/

 

[FrankF]

When they learn that a "decade" is ten years and not five I might reconsider renewing my subscription to the service. Send the programmers back to school to learn how to count on all their fingers. They're so vain they probably think this post is about them! Until then its just one monthly sub for my son to enjoy 44, 47, 54, and 41!

Agreed. Why would I want to hear late 60's music on a 50's channel? Must think we are really stupid, or just don't care..

I also admit that it could be a bit confusing with some of the decades channels. Before the merger as a Sirius subscriber one knew that Sirius Gold (now 50's on 5) played mostly the early rock hits from the 50's thru the early 60's (pre British invasion) and 60's Vibrations (now 60's on 6) mostly played the hits from the British invasion thru the early 70's with some overlap with Sirius Gold & Totaly 70's (now 70's on 7). And on Cousin Bruce's Wednesday & Saturday shows (which were both on 60's Vibrations at the time), he had free reign of the playlist from the 50's thru the 70's. At least now on his Wednesday show on 5 he only plays songs from the 50's & 60's, but his Saturday show on 6 is as it always was (50's-70's). Even on 40's on 4 I've seen songs listed on there from the 1920's thru the 1950's.
But back to the topic, I have two Sirius radios and I'm not to thrilled either that I now will have to pay more for the second radio unless I want to fork up the cash for at least a year. I thought there was not supposed to be any price increaces if the merger were to go through. They had better watch it, or else they will price themselves out of business.

 

[Snafu]

I'm not touching anything right now. Echostar is buying an increasing amount of Sirius/XM shares and debt and seems to be about to either force Mel's hand or force him into Chapter 11. If its the later then all of the pricing plans change because the court won't allow them to continue to lose money on some of them. Sit tight, one way or the other this will have played out by the end of the year and we can see what the service will really look like going forward.

 

[Walter Graff]

I'm not touching anything right now. Echostar is buying an increasing amount of Sirius/XM shares and debt and seems to be about to either force Mel's hand or force him into Chapter 11. If its the later then all of the pricing plans change because the court won't allow them to continue to lose money on some of them. Sit tight, one way or the other this will have played out by the end of the year and we can see what the service will really look like going forward.

There is so much misinformation being reported as to be laughable. The WS Journal initially reported that Echostar CEO Charles Ergan had been quietly buying up Sirius XM debt, specifically the Feb. 17 convertible debt. As the stock began to rise on that news, other agencies began reporting that he was in fact buying Sirius XM bank debt instead, and some outlandish stories have been created around the topic.
Truth is that if Mr. Ergan is making a play for Sirius XM, that all of the outstanding debt if it were bought and converted to equity would give Mr. Ergan only 18% of Sirius XM, which would require open market purchases to be made to give him a majority stake. $175 million 2/15/09 debt divided by .12/share = 1.458 billion shares about 18% of the 8 billion shares authorized. So don't wait. Nothing to wait for. A better hint, Echo Star has had some crappy quarters and needs to bury some of the blame so taking on some bad debt helps them.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN0652827920090206

 

[stljohn]

I aint no market guy but there is no other reason other than insanity to buy a companies debt then to make a play and this Ergan aint crazy.

And you can force a companies hand with less then 18% of equity.

I worked at a company called Kellwood. Their largest shareholder, Sun Capital, had around 10% of Kellwood and forced them into a sale.
Kirk Kekorian owned 10% of GM and almost made them knuckle under to his demands before bailing out.

 

[Walter Graff]

No you can't. Sun Cap owned 12% stake and made a $542 million takeover bid. That is how you buy a company, with money. Big difference was that Kellwood had few options. It was a fair offer, there were no superior bids, and the company expects the majority of shareholders to tender the bid. They sat on it for a while even rejecting it at first until they looked at the retail market and realized they had no where to go. That is how they got bought out, not just because someone owned 12.5% of the shares. Sirius has paper debt and many options that Kellwood did not. Read what you want, but there is a lot of misinformation out there.

 

[stljohn]

look i dont really care that much but you are right in one thing, lot of misinfo. some right here.
12% is closer to 10 then 18 and it really doesn't matter how much cash you got if you have to start from squat.

again I repeat the obvious: dish aint buying debt for fun or cause they're stupid.
he's planning to make a play whether you care to acknowledge it or not.

ergan prbably wants to force mel to make a deal. mel's play

 

[Snafu]

Mel and Ergan are playing a giant game of chicken right now. Mel doesn't have the wherewithal to get through the year and he knows it, but its not the first time he's had to pull a financial rabbit out of his hat to save himself. He's trying to buy some time to buy up some allies that will see him through long enough to snap up some quick $$ and leave shareholders holding the debt (see Westwood One, CBS, Viacom). Trouble is that ploy worked in the days when credit was free and terms were easy. This might well be Mel's last hurrah.