Good thing Comcast and General Electric plan to name NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker as head of their proposed joint venture, because Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin doesn’t want the job. Not that he wouldn’t be a good candidate to run a merged Comcast-NBCU. Because as Karmazin himself told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto, he’d be an excellent choice.
Sirius XM Radio’s financial position is improving. Sadly, the same cannot be said for its subscribership. Reporting earnings this morning, the company broke even in its third quarter. Good news, but it was tempered with a bit of bad. Because Sirius’s subscriber growth is slowing.
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.
The rumors were true. At an invitation-only media event in New York City this morning, Sirius XM debuted the first-ever radio dock for the iPhone and iPod touch. Dubbed SkyDock, the $119.99 peripheral transforms Apple handsets into full-fledged satellite radios. And it gives users access to all XM and “Best of SIRIUS” channels–even Howard Stern.
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.
Apparently, satellite mogul Charlie Ergen’s run at Sirius XM has been in the works for quite some time. Indeed, “people familiar with the situation” tell The Wall Street Journal that he made an offer late last year to take control of the struggling satellite radio outfit, but was rebuffed.
With some shareholders already echoing a 24/7 Wall St. call for his ouster, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin would do well to temper his remarks about the troubled satellite radio company’s programming lineup a bit. Certainly comments like those Karmazin recently made at the Reuters Media Summit aren’t winning him support among subscribers irked over the loss of a favorite channel or three, even if there allegedly is a “best of breed” channel to replace them.
The U.S. Justice Department has managed the impossible. It’s brought Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey together under a single aegis.
This morning the DOJ approved the merger of satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) (home to Stern) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) (home to Winfrey), a move that will create a satellite radio company with [...]
According to “a reliable industry insider,” the touchscreen iPod that Apple is expected to uncrate tomorrow will support digital radio. “The source said that the new iPods will be able to receive digital radio, and will include a ‘buy-now’ function to allow the user to download and buy tracks as they are being played,” [...]
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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