Its like their bi polar.... It should be enough to know if we are still alive! If Its says Major...It means Major...
SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO FORUM
Its like their bi polar.... It should be enough to know if we are still alive! If Its says Major...It means Major...
As a shareholder who first bought at around 4.00 and has averaged down to .56 I would be OK with Liberty (or EchoStar) coming in and purchasing the other 4 billion authorized shares for 500 million dollars. Sure there would be dilution but we would still have our shares. Also, with 500 million invested Liberty would help get the rest of the financing done for the rest of 2009. Plus there is nothing to stop me from buying shares of Liberty (LINTA).
Believe me, I'm happy! Anything that avoids bankruptcy is good! BUT - a bridge loan would be better for the stock price than issuing four billion new shares to Malone.
I can't answer the who but I think it has been .32 on Yahoo for a week.Originally Posted by Demian
A "major stake" could be many things, or a combination of them. For example, it could be buying a huge amount of stock in the company. It could be giving money to the company directly for a percentage of the profits in the future. It could be using part or all of certain satellites and/or ground repeaters. It could be investing money in one way or another in Sirius XM as the kind of company it now is or adding (or taking away) certain features (video, telephone, etc.) - this would be in accordance with what the government would allow.
At this point we don't know.
But, in any case, this is most likely better than bankruptcy where we might very well lose everything.
Good luck to us all!
Thank you
lets see company must have no cash, earlier stories said company must maintain at least $75M and then u need some cash to run the day to day company. what does the company have to offer Liberty for hard cash - SHARES AND LOTS OF THEM. so just for funfun lets see the deal is Liberty gives siri 175M in exchange for stock worth . now u know Mel would say stock price of .1049 at close of business (4PM) on Friday, and Liberty says gee Mel how about .03 which was the low. so they dicker this around all weekend. Liberty says, gee Mel without us u gonna be out of job and company goes in BK. Mel says but u dont want to loose Ergen. Libety says, gee Mel, how about controlling number of seats on the Board of Directors. and u can see how this can take time, while the clock is ticking.
and now it is 5Pm Monday. with hours to go.
Financial Times report as of 2:00 today. It speaks of future strategic partnerships. Of course, we don't know if the details here are what are currently being considered:
Sirius XM weighs up Liberty Media financing offer
By Kenneth Li in New York
Published: February 16 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 16 2009 02:00
Sirius XM is weighing up a financing offer from Liberty Media ahead of a deadline tomorrow to repay $175m in bonds in a potential transaction seen as thwarting EchoStar's attempt to take over the US satellite radio company, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
A decision from the company, which broadcasts radio programmes from Martha Stewart, Howard Stern and Major League Baseball is not expected until at least late today or sometime tomorrow.
Liberty Media, run by cable pioneer John Malone, is offering a senior secured loan that will allow Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius XM, to repay $175m in bonds held by EchoStar that are due by tomorrow or risk filing for bankruptcy protection.
The offer from Liberty, which could later involve strategic partnerships between Sirius and DirecTV, the top US satellite TV operator controlled by Liberty Media, is viewed as a more friendly offer and does not contemplate a takeover of the company while leaving Mr Karmazin to run the company.
Mr Malone saw the proposed deal as a "good financial investment", the person said.
According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, EchoStar is considering injecting $500m to take control of Sirius and Mr Ergen is now prepared to let Mr Karmazin keep his job.
The terms or the size of Liberty's offer were not yet determined, but were expected to provide for additional capital to help buy more time to restructure other maturities due this year, the person said.
Sirius XM's total debt now stands at about $3.25bn with $1bn due this year.
Since rebuffing an unsolicited offer from Charlie Ergen's EchoStar, a US satellite television company, to take over Sirius XM late last year, Mr Ergen has been buying Sirius debt.
Sirius does not have enough cash to repay the $175m in bonds that are due on Tuesday.
The discussions pit three of the media's biggest power brokers in a battle that could determine the future of the sole satellite radio company in the US.
Mr Ergen and Mr Karmazin have a difficult history. In 2004, Mr Ergen's EchoStar sued CBS, then run by Mr Karmazin, for antitrust violations for forcing the satellite TV company to carry smaller cable networks as a condition of receiving CBS' local TV station signals.
At one point in the dispute, which led to the blackout of CBS signal in close to 2m EchoStar subscribers that year, EchoStar urged subscribers to complain by publishing Mr Karmazin's home phone number on screens.
Sirius XM said on Friday that it had exchanged $172.5m of its convertible notes due in December for newly issued senior secured notes due in 2011 and indicated that it would have to file for bankruptcy if it was unsuccessful in restructuring some of its debt obligations by tomorrow.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Liberty Media close to deal for Sirius XM
By Kenneth Li and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
Published: February 16 2009 22:01 | Last updated: February 16 2009 22:01
John Malone’s Liberty Media is expected to offer about $250m in a senior secured loan on Tuesday as the first step in a “multi-stage” deal to rescue Sirius XM from an imminent debt deadline, a person familiar with the satellite radio group’s discussions said.
The deal offered by Liberty would involve a debt for equity swap and would leave Mr Malone’s group, which controls DirecTV, the top US satellite television company, with a “meaningful” stake in Sirius, this person said.
It was not immediately clear what the other stages of the transaction would involve and several details of the proposed deal have yet to be finalised, but a decision is expected by end of business day on Tuesday.
Liberty’s offer is designed to thwart the advances of Charlie Ergen, chief executive of EchoStar and Dish Communications, the US satellite broadcasters, who offered to buy Sirius XM late last year.
Mr Ergen’s offer was rebuffed but since then he has quietly accumulated Sirius’ debt and now owns a $175m tranche of debt which comes due on Tuesday.
Sirius warned investors last week it would need to file for bankruptcy protection if it could not restructure its debt by the Tuesday deadline. The group has $3.25bn in total debt, with $1bn due this year.
Creditors voiced concern over the weekend, with Edward Weisfelner, a Brown Rudnick bankruptcy lawyer representing holders of about $173m of Sirius debt, warning that the bondholders could seek the removal of Sirius XM executives should it file for bankruptcy.
Mr Weisfelner, who also represented disaffected XM bondholders seeking a change of control premium during the merger with Sirius, told the FT on Monday that neither he nor his clients had been contacted by the company to clarify its plans.
Liberty Media’s approach is seen as a more friendly option for Sirius to pursue than an offer by Mr Ergen, who has tussled in the past with Mel Karmazin, Sirius’s chief executive.
Mr Ergen’s EchoStar once sued Viacom for antitrust violations, publishing Mr Karmazin’s home phone number on television for disgruntled customers to call in a dispute while Mr Karmazin was president of Viacom, then the owner of the CBS broadcast network.
The crisis at Sirius was triggered by the company’s inability to refinance debts taken on in the XM merger in frozen credit markets, a sickly advertising climate and a plunge in sales of new cars where its radios can be installed.
The group, which once lavished large contracts upon on-air talent, including a $500m five-year deal with Howard Stern, has seen its market capitalisation crash from $5.5bn at the time of the merger to under $370m on Friday night.
Evercore is advising Sirius. UBS is advising Liberty Media.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
wsj article out need sub
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1234...oo_hs&ru=yahoo
John Malone's Liberty Media Inc. was near a deal late Monday to invest in Sirius XM Radio Inc. in return for a major stake, according to people familiar with the matter.
Though the two sides remained in negotiations over the final details, Mr. Malone appeared poised to the edge past rival media baron Charles Ergen for a piece of the troubled satellite-radio operator. A deal would ...
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