Is it too late for Sirius XM? CEO Mel Karmazin and John Malone, whose Liberty Media just tossed the foundering satellite radio outfit a $530 million lifeline, clearly don’t believe so. So do the company’s long-suffering investors, who continue to stand by it, though their faith has been sorely shaken. But the same cannot be said for Martine Rothblatt, the entrepreneur who founded Sirius nearly 20 years ago.
Looks like Sirius XM can shelve that bankruptcy filing it’s been preparing these past few weeks–for the time being, anyway. This morning, the struggling satellite radio company announced an 11th-hour deal with John Malone’s Liberty Media that will allow it to meet a Feb. 17 debt deadline that might otherwise have forced the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or a deal with satellite mogul Charlie Ergen. Sirius shares are up an astonishing 85.89 percent on news of the deal.
Sirius XM is ready to seek bankruptcy protection. The company has warned investors that it’s prepared to file Chapter 11. It has hired bankruptcy and restructuring advisers. And it has filled out the necessary paperwork. But it may never file it. “People familiar with the situation” tell The Wall Street Journal that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin and satellite mogul Charlie Ergen are moving closer to an accord that would save the struggling satellite radio outfit from having to file Chapter 11.
As entertaining as news of a Sirius XM-EchoStar-Liberty Media three-way might be, research houses don’t appear to be giving it much credence. Already a few have issued notes dubious of the idea of Liberty accepting the white knight role in this debacle.
The Sirius XM fiasco is fast becoming high drama. Hoping to avoid bankruptcy and fend off an unsolicited takeover attempt from satellite mogul Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar, which has been acquiring its debt, Sirius has approached Liberty Media about a possible transaction.
Google services are near-ubiquitous in mature markets, but in emerging ones? Not so much. That will soon change, however, thanks to an ambitious plan to bring affordable Internet access to some three billion people in Africa and other emerging markets.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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