Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Merger Hearings Move To New Committee

March 6, 2007

As Reported By Reuters:

By Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s (SIRI.O: Quote, Profile , Research) chief executive will defend the company's plan to purchase XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR.O: Quote, Profile , Research) at a House telecommunications panel hearing on Wednesday.

The deal, announced just over two weeks ago, has already been aired at a House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force hearing. Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told lawmakers at that session he was ready to make concessions such as capping consumer prices for a period of time.
In an interview on Tuesday, the chief financial officer of Sirius reiterated Karmazin's assertion that Sirius and XM are competing with a free product, traditional AM/FM radio.

"We are competing with a free product, so while we may adjust pricing, competing with free is a very very difficult thing to do," David Frear told Reuters.
"Mel made the statement that we would not raise prices for existing services and that we could offer lower prices."

Frear said the companies will file antitrust documents with the Justice Department within a few weeks and will be working on filing the merger application with the Federal Communications Commission shortly thereafter.......,.More HERE via Reuters

Labels: merger, sirius, xm