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DirecTv to the Rescue??

J

jasper933

"NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Sirius XM Radio Inc's (SIRI.O) Chief Executive Mel Karmazin has approached DirecTV Group Inc (DTV.O) and Liberty Media (LINTA.O) in an effort to fend off bankruptcy as well as a bid by EchoStar Corp's (SATS.O) Charlie Ergen, media reports said on Wednesday."

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1140516820090212?rpc=44

Could we see a DirecTV and Sirius merger? I prefer this merger than the Dish / Sirius.

I definitely am not a fan of Charlie Ergen or his Dish Network.

I think DirecTV is a better managed company and leader in its industry. At one time I think DirecTV had 30% of XM.

But in the end it could be ATT buys them, who knows.
 
Re: DirecTv to the merge?

You will never see a merger of any large entity like Direct TV with Sirius. Sirius is the second largest pay service in the country. They are huge. Anyone owning a major stake in a broadcast entity would never be allowed such power, having such control by merging with it. But rescue what? Sirius is working in positive operating territory right now, will grow another 450,000 this past quarter, earns over 2 bil from subs each year, and has an amazing programming package (although a bankruptcy would let it get rid of some horrible past XM contracts.) The topic here is not about rescue, it's about people seeing the success of Sirius and now wanting a piece of it. Sirius is a niche that people like, and want, with just under 20 million now. The biggest cable companies don't have that many subscribers. Hopefully they will declare bankruptcy and further get their gears aligned and us subscribers who enjoy sat radio and the huge void it fills will keep on loving it.
 
"You will never see a merger of any large entity like Direct TV with Sirius. Sirius is the second largest pay service in the country. They are huge. Anyone owning a major stake in a broadcast entity would never be allowed such power, having such control by merging with it. But rescue what? Sirius is working in positive operating territory right now, will grow another 450,000 this past quarter, earns over 2 bil from subs each year, and has an amazing programming package (although a bankruptcy would let it get rid of some horrible past XM contracts.) The topic here is not about rescue, it's about people seeing the success of Sirius and now wanting a piece of it. Sirius is a niche that people like, and want, with just under 20 million now. The biggest cable companies don't have that many subscribers. Hopefully they will declare bankruptcy and further get their gears aligned and us subscribers who enjoy sat radio and the huge void it fills will keep on loving it"

Would you not think bankruptcy would scare customers off? Why would I buy a year subscription when I am not sure if the company will be around? They may have positive operating, but there is plenty of debt. I am going to disagree with you on the cable companies. CRAPCAST has more customer base.

I to enjoy sat radio and want the best for them.
 
I'd like to put my two cents in....which, if the market reads right, means two more cents gets me one share of sirius/xm
 
jasper933 said:
Would you not think bankruptcy would scare customers off? Why would I buy a year subscription when I am not sure if the company will be around? They may have positive operating, but there is plenty of debt. I am going to disagree with you on the cable companies. CRAPCAST has more customer base.

I to enjoy sat radio and want the best for them.
Click to expand...

I should have said it clearer. Sirius is the second biggest sub service in the country. Comcast is bigger. Not many other cable service cna say that. Comcast has been around for a long time. Sirius, not, yet they grew that fast, that quickly. That tells you what a good idea it was and how it has huge potential beyond what it is now. Debt has many meanings. It's not as much about the word debt as the quality of the debt. In other words, what assets, etc offset the debt and what potential is there beyond the debt. Look a company like GM. Right now the value of the debt is about 7 cents on the dollar. So the value of the dept and potential to turn the debt into equity is slim. Sirus' debt is worth about 80 cents on the dollar. It's very valuable debt. It should be. When you take it all into account, Sirius is nearly showing positive numbers in terms of profit. It's one reason why Echostar wants to gather that debt. If it's converted it is worth quite a bit of money. So yes, Sirius has a lot of debt and took on a huge amount more with the acquisition of XM, but to anyone looking for a company with a debt load and incredible potential, it's Sirius. It's the kind of company you want to buy the debt of as Echostar is now doing. In one day you can make millions when that debt becomes equity. And if you can take the reins, you have one powerhouse subscription service.

As for bankruptcy scaring customers off. Not really. Most customers are free one year subs given by car dealers. No loss getting a free sub. And in a years time, you aren't thinking about bankruptcy as much as that you like the service and want to continue it, or you don' t. A larger percentage opt to continue than cancel. While overall car numbers are down, many dealers including the one I work for are having good sales numbers right now. So the big picture looks bleak, but the small scale picture is quite good and hence why Sirius will report good sub numbers for the fourth quarter. SUre a few folks will be scared off, but history tells us that it's not enough to affect the bottom line. We know the numbers for any scenario and the range is never enough to really make a difference. Just a Sirius knew the range of total customers they could loose after the merger due to customer dissatisfaction and it was never a number big enough to affect the bottom line.

You'll hear news at the end of this week that might sound bad but will be good for Sirius.
 
I totally agree with Walter Graff that a merger of Satellite Radio / TV should NOT be allowed to happen but fear that it WILL happen in the current economic and political environment. Right now a $800 Billion Stimulus Bill is being rammed through Congress without any public hearings, with the justification that speed is necessary to stave off "catastrophe". I predict that a shotgun marriage between Sirius XM and one of the satellite TV companies will be pushed through the regulatory agencies, with the justification that this is necessary to "save" satellite radio. After all, these media consolidation issues are minor compared to the economic crisis facing our Nation, aren't they? Watch, it's gonna happen, and satellite broadcasters will once again receive favored treatment over terrestrial broadcasters. The end result will be a streamlined Sirius XM, using bankruptcy to shed itself of talent and syndication contracts, and with the financial backing of DirecTV or Echostar. Not exactly a level playing field for terrestrial broadcasters to play on.
 
Fear not. Anyone notice that in the last few days, their receivers have been inundated with updates? Hint: Bet you didn't know that Sirius already has the ability at broadcasting both services off the Sirius sats right now. Hint: Go look up patent 7,363,000. Many wonder why Sirius hasn't jumped on the bandwagon to make both systems compatible. There is a very god reason. Hint: They don't have to.

I told you a while back Sirius wanted to shed XM in name and in equipment. When Sirius acquired XM it set up a system where all XM debt was to be transferred to a subsidiary of names related to XM and not attached to Sirius Sat Radio inc (the core of Sirius). All that debt held by other company(s) outside of Sirius? It's not really Sirius that they hold debt in but in a subsidiary called XM holdings. And without all the technical talk, Sirius right now has the ability to shed nearly 2/3rds of its debt by making a deal today. Hint: It got the subscribers it wanted, and is about to make a deal to get rid of the dead weight of XM which is where all of Sirius' debt is. Oh... XM has a redundant sat system just like Sirius that is worth about 2.8 billion for someone interested in expanding their TV/radio business. Hint: Echostar is interested. Hint: Watch your receiver updating firmware in short little bursts like crazy this week.

As I said earlier, it's all going to be good. I wouldn't worry.
 
I'm in a rental car this week. A brand spanking new Dodge Journey. I picked it because it had sat radio. It happens to have Sirius. After a week I can confirm that the signal drops out when I'm on the wrong side of a tall truck and whenever I drove under a low or wide overpass. Also lost it a few times during brief heavy rain, and a few times for no readily apparent reason. So, I'm not sure what purpose the hardware updates serve, but sadly the system performs exactly as it did for me a couple of years ago (which, in part, drove me to XM). As having been a paying customer of both services/systems, I would offer that the Sirius system is the redundant (and inferior) one.
 
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