Sirius XM being stalked by Dish?

**Scott Greczkowski** · 02-05-2009 06:46 AM

Sirius XM being stalked by Dish?

by Tom Taylor

EchoStar has "quietly accumulated Sirius XM debt", says the Wall Street Journal.
Object - a takeover? Possibly a squeeze-play to force Mel Karmazin's company into Chapter 11, then swap its debt for equity and grab even more of the cheap debt from other bondholders? The Journal says EchoStar/Dish Network's Charles Ergen could also try to snatch the prize before it gets to Chapter 11, and that "either way, current shareholders would be left with nothing." Why is EchoStar interested?

Read the rest at
Radio-Info.com

**Weezknight** · 02-05-2009 07:42 AM

Interesting read. I hope there aren't too many Sirius shareholders who are Dish Network subs. Charlie will have even more people against him since the people who own Sirius XM stock will lose big time in this scenario!

**JosephB** · 02-05-2009 08:12 AM

It makes sense, to be honest. A big expense for XM Sirius are all the administrative functions. They could eliminate probably 80% of the CSRs along with 99% of the payroll, HR, finance, accounting, etc. staff. The only people they'd have to keep around are the DJs and programming people along with some engineering staff. He could also leverage Echostar and build or at least design their own receivers and speed up the merging of the XM and Sirius platforms.

Charlie has a good base for building a very large and integrated broadcasting and communications company, it's just too bad he runs it like my old boss ran his company that only had 4 employees. Charlie seems like he's just never grown out of the small business mentality of being scrappy. All of the disputes with programmers are the prime evidence of that.

**ReconPJ** · 02-05-2009 08:40 AM

I believe that would net him an additional 6 sattelites...Only would need three for radio....

**jacmyoung** · 02-05-2009 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by ReconPJ

I believe that would net him an additional 6 sattelites...Only would need three for radio....

I think this may be the key. What can the investors expect with a dying company?

**Rangers484** · 02-05-2009 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by Weezknight

Interesting read. I hope there aren't too many Sirius shareholders who are Dish Network subs. Charlie will have even more people against him since the people who own Sirius XM stock will lose big time in this scenario!

You mean their stock that is tradding for pennies on the dollar wasn't what cost them their money already?

**Timpanogos** · 02-05-2009 09:05 AM

Dish: "danger Will Robinson!" XM would be a BAD move.

**Scott Greczkowski** · 02-05-2009 09:06 AM

Here is the WSJ article... unfortunately I don't have an account there to read the entire thing.

EchoStar Amasses Sirius XM Debt - WSJ.com

**OV_HDFan** · 02-05-2009 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Weezknight

Interesting read. I hope there aren't too many Sirius shareholders who are Dish Network subs. Charlie will have even more people against him since the people who own Sirius XM stock will lose big time in this scenario!

Have you checked the price of sirius/XM Stock lately? A whopping .14 a share. I think the company and FCC already tanked this stock. Don't think Uncle Chuck can do much more damage. BTW I think this is a good thing. I think Dish could actually make backseat TV a real option.