"Walter, you are absolutely incorrect. Your avid support for Sirius is getting in the way of business facts."
LMAO. You mean your anger that XM was taken over by Sirius is making you try to seem like in some strange way XM was a better business? If it was it wouldn't have been taken over by Sirius. It was around longer, and still Sirius made better business decisions, had more grow far faster and in the end took over the lesser of the two. Can't change history. Successful companies are not taken over by other companies unless they are weaker. Xm was the weaker business model.
"Fact of the matter is, Sirius needed this merger. Experts agree that XM was ahead in technology, superior in music programming and would have been profitable faster than Sirius."
Of course Sirius did, they needed the subscriber base to strengthen what they already had going for them. As for your "experts", no one except pissed off former XM subs or folks who never had the service but simply follow everyone else said the music was better. Music taste is subjective. Personally, I found XM unlistenable. But that doesn't mean it was bad, just not my taste. XM had better technology, but that it moot now as it's Sirius' company, and technology never made for success. Tools don't build houses, carpenters do. Sirius built a better company in a shorter time. Sirius gobbled up the weaker company. As for debt, XM had 5 times the debt of Sirius and now Sirius has to get rid of XM's skunk-like debt.
"While XM did perhaps overpay for some content, the truth of the matter is that Mel fired XM programmers that interacted with their audience and presented intelligent music programming clearly different than the FM overconsulted version of said formats."
Sirius fired redundant staff, eliminated most all of XM's programming. That's what happens when you are taken over. You usually end up as a memory. XM programming is a memory. Not good or bad, just part of how business works. As a Sirius subscribers, I love teh choices Sirius offers. Just as you thought the programmers of XM 'talked' to their audience.
"X Country, Fred, Lucy, Beyond Jazz, XM Cafe, Soul Street, XMU, XM Chill, The Move, UPop, the Decades channels. All pleasing XM subscribers and all quality programming that turned controversial when the playlists were trimmed and inferior Sirius replacements were simulcast on the XM platform."
XM lost about 12k subscribers because of the merge. In the last quarter Sirius gained about 450k subs. I guess the programming of XM wasn't so good, nor better. Sirius is still growing despite your hatred of it.
"Your brilliant programming minds at Sirius are under the impression that Coldplay belongs on a "downtempo electronica" channel, that James Brown only recorded 5 songs at most, and that Mojo Nixon has to drop the F bomb every break on a "progressive country" channel."
Very simple solution. If you hate Sirius, get rid of it. Why anyone would want a service they hate is beyond me. Here's the reality XM is just two initials at the end of Sirius' name. And will be eliminated eventually. XM is gone. If you don't like Sirius get rid of it. Americans have an entitlement problem. They think $15 a month entitles them to exclusive ownership. It's a big reason why this country is on the brink of disaster. Many Americans needs a good wallop in the ass. Hope this works.
"Walter, this was a HOSTILE takeover and Mel got his revenge by gutting an excellent product. And you wish to sit and applaud that?"
I guess as your first sentence shows, you know little about how business works so you last statement doesn't stray. . A company doesn't take over a weaker company and say, hey lets drop our successful plan for theirs. A company takes over a company and has a fire sale, looking at what works from the weaker of the two and what doesn't, then incorporating what hey want into the more successful entity. Most of XM didn't work for Sirius. No grudges, just good business sense. No loss. Sirius is nearly 20 million strong and growing. And now analysts are starting to see the potential and saying 'buy' Sirius stock. Hey, I can think of some great TV shows I loved that got canceled over the years that really pissed me off. How could they get rid of such great shows? While I thought the world of them, I was in the minority. XM was the minority when you look at the two services. Sad, but true. So if Sirius isn't living up to your expectations, GET RID OF IT!! It's not going to get any better for you.
