Ugly news for Sirius: With a share price that has closed below $1 for 30 consecutive business days, the company has fallen out of compliance with Nasdaq listing rules. In a notice issued earlier this week, Nasdaq gave the company until March 15, 2010, to comply.
Long-suffering Sirius XM investors who’ve held onto the company’s stock despite its troubles are being rewarded for their perseverance. Sirius shares are up over 13 percent today at 68 cents. And they’re up about 26 percent for the week. Why? A few reasons. The government’s “cash for clunkers” program and rumors of new iPod dock.
Though it was eagerly anticipated by the industry and Sirius subscribers, the satellite radio provider never expected that much from its new iPhone app. During a call with analysts Thursday, CEO Mel Karmazin said the app was intended more as a means of tempering subscriber churn than a means of driving new subscriptions.
This week has been a good one for Sirius XM Radio. The company’s shares spiked, rising about 20 percent to 54 cents on news of the government’s expanded “Cash for Clunkers” program and the positive impact it should have on new car sales and, by extension, new Sirius subscriptions. That analysts had been predicting a second-quarter loss for the satellite radio company, along with the loss of thousands of subscribers, did little to temper enthusiasm.
Despite some glaring omissions in its channel lineup, Sirius XM’s new iPhone app has earned considerable traction in the iTunes App Store. It was downloaded more than one million times in the first two weeks it was available–this despite the fact that the app doesn’t include access to Howard Stern, the personality Sirius often claims is responsible for driving more subscriptions than any other.
Bad news for Sirius XM shareholders hoping for a change in management: Mel Karmazin’s five-year contract as CEO of the satellite radio provider has been extended through December 2012. And he’s been given a raise and new stock options to boot.
The too-long-in-coming Sirius XM app for the iPhone and iPod touch showed up in the App Store today and sadly, it’s more noteworthy for what’s missing than anything else. Absent from it are a number of the broadcaster’s more popular channels, among them Howard Stern’s, which Sirius often claims are responsible for driving more subscriptions than any other. Also missing: MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play and Sirius NASCAR Radio.
Sirius XM fans will see their subscription rates rise by nearly $2 this summer. According to an employee training document, the company plans to pass on to subscribers the cost of increased performance royalty rates for satellite radio instituted by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007. Sources say the increase will amount to about $1.98-per-month when it is implemented on July 29.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin says his decision to forfeit 30 million company stock options is a generous enhancement to the company’s stock incentive plan, one that will help it “attract, motivate and retain key employees.” An altruistic move were it not for the fact that the options had an exercise price of $4.72 per share and Sirius’s stock is trading at about 35 cents.
If you thought the decline in subscribers posted by Sirius XM Radio in its first quarter was ugly, you ain’t seen nothing yet. With the souring economy weighing heavy on the auto industry–a mainstay of Sirius’s business–and partner Chrysler navigating bankruptcy, the struggling company is bracing itself for continued subscriber losses in its second quarter.
Good thing Sirius XM Radio resolved the debt issues that threatened to drag it into bankruptcy earlier this year; the company’s clearly got other things to worry about. Like fleeing subscribers. Reporting a first-quarter net loss of $236.6 million this morning, Sirius said that anemic car sales had led to its first-ever decline in net subscriber additions. And it was a nasty decline.
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.
It’s taken far too long, but Sirius XM is coming to the iPhone. During a conference call to discuss the fourth-quarter results it posted last night, the satellite radio operator said we can expect an application that will stream its service to the iPhone and iPod touch to debut sometime in Q2.
Investors holding shares in foundering satellite radio outfit Sirius XM just received a bit of welcome news. The company has closed its investment deal with Liberty Media, resolving the “uncertainty” surrounding its debt maturing in 2009. Good thing too, because that uncertainty was pretty worrisome.
Sirius XM’s deal with Liberty Media appears to be moving ahead as planned. This morning the company said that it has received the necessary Nasdaq approval to issue Liberty 12.5 million shares of Sirius preferred stock without shareholder approval.
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.
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