Sirius, XM plan $13 billion merger
BOB MOON: Never mind that just a few years back, federal regulators swiftly rejected a proposed merger between two satellite television companies. Today, the country’s two rival satellite radio services, Sirius and XM, are hoping the FCC will see their situation differently.
The emerging industry has been struggling to break even. And Jeff Jarvis, a communications professor at City University of New York, tells us a merger would combine the stronger points of both services.
JEFF JARVIS: Now that they can have one big satellite company they can have one shared technology. XM’s technology was better they can share that. Sirius’s growth was better. They don’t have to compete with each other to get the talent at a very high cost.
The $13 billion-merger plan would make Sirius chief Mel Karmazin
the CEO of the combined operation. And XM chairman, Gary Parsons,
would keep that same position in the new company.
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