Sirius Breaks Even
by John Paczkowski
Posted on November 5, 2009 at 5:12 AM PT
Sirius XM Radio’s financial position is improving. Sadly, the same cannot be said for its subscribership. Reporting third-quarter earnings this morning, the company posted a loss of $149.1 million, or four cents a share on revenue that rose to $629.6 million from $612.8 million. Quite a bit better than its year-earlier loss of $4.88 billion, or $1.93 a share.
Absent one-time charges, the company broke even for the quarter. Analysts had been expecting a two-cent loss on revenue of $609 million.
Good news, but it was tempered with a bit of bad. Because Sirius’s (SIRI) subscriber growth is slowing. The company ended the quarter with 18.5 million total subscribers. That’s up 103,000 from the second quarter, but down 2.1 percent from a year earlier.
“We are very pleased with what we accomplished during the third quarter, especially when considering the macroeconomic issues affecting consumers and the auto industry,” Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said in a statement.
“We managed to grow revenue, grow ARPU, reduce operating costs, increase adjusted income from operations significantly, and refinance higher cost debt,” Karmazin added. “We look forward to continuing this performance. We grew subscribers and improved churn in the quarter, and we are well positioned to take advantage of an economic rebound. We expect to grow subscribers, revenue, and cash flow next year regardless of the magnitude of any recovery.”
