Another great day for Sirius stock. Dow up 250 and Sirius nothing.
I'm afraid that if market does a selloff in the coming weeks to end Oct, Siri will get hit again.
As much as I want to buy shres here, I think it can hit at least the low .30's on a selloff in overall markets.
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=608
Letter to Howard Stern
October 20, 2008
Mr. Howard Stern
The Howard Stern Show
Sirius Satellite Radio
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Dear Mr. Stern:
I can vividly remember your lampooning of Kathie Lee Gifford after we exposed the fact that 12 and 13-year-old children were sewing her clothing line under abusive sweatshop conditions for pennies an hour in Honduras. I am now sending you a report that documents similar abusive conditions faced by women in South Korea who made Sirius Satellite radios at the Kiryung Electronics factory in Seoul. Management limited married women to just three-month contracts so they could easily be let go—fired—if they became pregnant. The vast majority of production line workers making the Sirius radios were hired as “temps,” a category which stripped them of their basic rights.
Women could be fired for using the bathroom, arriving a few minutes late to work, requesting a sick day, or if they were unable to work every weekend or on national holidays. In fact, women workers could be fired if the line supervisor did not like the way they looked. The women making the Sirius Satellite radios routinely toiled 13 to 14-hour shifts, six and seven days a week, while being paid below subsistence level wages—trapping them and their children in a poverty-level existence. Before Sirius radio shipments had to leave for the U.S., the women often had to work grueling all-night 24-hour shifts. All overtime was mandatory.
A delegation of women workers from the Kiryung Electronics factory has travelled to New York City, arriving late Tuesday night, October 15, to seek a meeting with representatives of the Sirius company. They are accompanied by representatives of the Korean Metal Workers Union, Korea’s largest union.
The women fought back against the exploitative conditions at the Kiryung factory and have been on strike since the summer of 2005. The workers—mostly women—have faced constant harassment, threats and beatings. Factory management hired thugs to attack the strikers. Ten of the women have just ended a hunger strike, including the chairwoman of the local union at Kiryung, who went without food for 94 days. She is now hospitalized.
A year ago, the Kiryung factory relocated the production of Sirius Satellite radios to a low wage factory in China, telling the workers that it was Sirius management that demanded Kiryung drastically cut costs by moving to China.
The brave women from the Kiryung factory have come to New York to ask Sirius Satellite Radio to intervene with Kiryung’s management to sit down and negotiate in good faith to finally end this crisis. We will be at the building seeking a meeting with Sirius management at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 22.
I hope you can help the women, who have suffered long enough. Please call me if you have any questions or ideas. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Charles Kernaghan
Director
About 20 minutes to go.........
Another huge up day in the market and SIRI is the fat girl not invited to the party again.
SIRI has been trading pretty flat most of the day.......
Pray that .36 holds going into the close.....
After I emailed Robert Holmes to point out the falsehood in his article, he has now "updated" the article........Originally Posted by Demian
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10443...FREE&cm_ite=NA
Technology Update
Sirius XM Mulls Reverse Stock Split
10/20/08 - 02:35 PM EDT
SIRI (Stocks Under $10 PICK) Robert Holmes
Updated from 11:26 a.m. EDT
Sirius XM (SIRI Quote - Cramer on SIRI - Stock Picks) is floating the idea of a potential reverse stock split as solution to prop up the company's slumping share price.
In a regulatory notice filed late last week, Sirius XM said it is proposing a split ratio of between 1-for-10 to 1-for-50, which will be put to a vote at the company's annual shareholder meeting, scheduled for Dec. 18. A potential reverse split would reduce the number of shares outstanding from roughly 3.2 billion to a range of 64 million to 320 million.
Shares of the satellite radio company, formed after the July merger between Sirius and XM, have slid as low as 36 cents recently amid concerns over slowing subscriber growth and the company's ability to refinance several debt obligations set to mature in 2009.
Sirius XM shares traded recently at 38 cents.
Sirius XM said that the reverse split proposal comes as the company is in danger of receiving a delisting notice from the Nasdaq. Normally, a stock must trade at $1 or higher. If the price closes below $1 for 30 consecutive trading sessions, the Nasdaq sends a delisting notice that requires a company to regain compliance within the next 180 calendar days.
However, one day prior to Sirius XM's regulatory filing, the Nasdaq temporarily suspended the application of continued listing requirements related to bid price and market value of publicly held shares through Jan. 16, 2009.
"Given current market conditions, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed with Nasdaq that companies are in need of temporary relief," said Nasdaq spokesperson Wayne Lee in an email. "We believe the temporary suspensions will permit companies to focus on the successful operation of their businesses than on responding to market conditions that are unpredictable and often out of control of the company's management."
Shares of Sirius XM last traded above the $1 threshold on Sept. 19, which meant that a delisting warning would've come from the Nasdaq within the next two weeks. Sirius XM now has a three-month reprieve from the Nasdaq's listing criteria.
"Although our common stock's trading price has not been below the $1.00 per share level for thirty consecutive trading days...we believe that approval of this proposal would significantly reduce our risk of not meeting this continued listing standard in the future," the company said in the filing.
Sirius XM said that its board intends to effect the proposed reverse stock split only if it believes it will improve the trading price, and only if it's "in the best interests of the company and its stockholders."
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/...satellite.html
Sirius Subscribers Lost NBA Programming Despite XM Merger
By Eliot Van Buskirk October 20, 2008 | 12:28:55 PMCategories: Satellite Radio
Despite assurances that all satellite radios sold by Sirius and XM would be fully compatible with a merged Sirius XM service, owners of certain early Sirius radios cannot access programming they could access before the merger.
A Listening Post reader described via e-mail how the merger blocked his ability to listen to NBA broadcasts on his Sirius radio device, an older model.
"Back in March ['07] you and dozens of others reported that Sirius announced that they were guaranteeing their equipment would not become obsolete as a result of the merger," wrote Tom Bellucco of Webster, New York. "Sirius lost NBA programming but says 'Have no fear! It's on XM, so you just need to add the Best of XM package to get it back.'"
But for Bellucco, that upgrade was impossible using his existing equipment: two Audiovox SIRPNP2 receivers, two car kits, one house kit and three boomboxes for his childrens' rooms.
"For only $4 a month [the upgrade] is worth it," Bellucco explained. "However, my radio is not capable of receiving XM programming. It says so when I try to upgrade. So, I say, my radio has become obsolete. It is no longer capable of receiving NBA programming as a result of the merger."
Sirius XM denied that claim to Wired.com via e-mail. "None of our radios were made obsolete by the merger. Zero," wrote a spokesman for the company. "Any XM radio gets XM programming and any Sirius radio gets Sirius programming, same as it ever was."
And that's true... in a sense.
What has changed, at least as far as NBA games go, is what constitutes a Sirius channel and what constitutes an XM channel. Basketball games were on Sirius channels, now they're on XM channels. Sirius and XM were not supposed to be communicating strategically during that period for antitrust reasons, so the NBA apparently had its own reasons for switching from Sirius to XM.
"In a very quiet fashion, Sirius lost the NBA," said Ryan Saghir of OrbitCast, which covers satellite radio issues exclusively. "And in a similarly quiet fashion, XM signed on the NBA. And I think that was pretty much separate from the merger itself, and it was simply a contract issue where for some reason they went from one service to the other. But the earlier chip generation of radio has a [smaller] capacity of channels. From a consumer standpoint, yes -- the merger essentially has lost the NBA [for many Sirius subscribers].
Sirius subscribers with older radios have reason to be upset about the switch, says Susan Kevorkian, consumer audio analyst for IDC. "It's misleading to customers, who originally subscribed to Sirius because they wanted to get NBA, to switch the network without duly informing them," she told Wired.com. "If that indeed is the case, it's poor policy on the part of the satellite radio provider at a time when they need to not only retain existing customers but also expand the install base of users. Word of mouth would be another way to do that, and they won't get good word of mouth if existing customers aren't happy with what they're getting. At the end of the day, they have to be consistent in their messaging -- and that's a big inconsistency."
Since car manufacturers often buy satellite radio chipsets far in advance of installing them in new car models, new car buyers could be subject to the same channel capacity limitations that bar them from subscribing to "Best of XM" from Sirius radios.
The Sirius XM spokesman essentially admitted as much. "Almost all our radios today are capable of receiving the 'The Best of the Both' packages," he wrote. "But some radios, including some early-generation Sirius radios, aren't capable of getting 'The Best of XM.' As you know, with all consumer electronics, features and capacity have improved over time with each generation."
For the most part, we agree that most of Sirius XM's radios are merger-proof in part because they're capable of receiving these "Best of" channels. But Sirius's "guarantee to its more than 12 million listeners that existing radios will not become obsolete if the merger is approved" rings a bit hollow to early adopters who subscribed to Sirius in whole or part due to its NBA programming, regardless of how it happened.
There is a possible fix: Sirius XM could rearrange its existing channel offerings and possibly renegotiate its contract with the NBA so that subscribers with limited-capacity radios -- including those who signed up when the NBA was on Sirius -- would be able to continue listening to basketball games. Whether Sirius XM finds that to be in its best interest from a business perspective remains to be seen.
"You're definitely going to have a lot of basketball people feeling slighted because of this -- especially people who don't have a qualified receiver, "said Saghir. "What I don't know is if Sirius and XM are providing any special offers as a result, to maybe appease these people. I'm sure they're trying their best to make sure they keep every single subscriber they can."
This stock is badly damaged and if we get a test of the lows on teh Dow again, its in the .20's.
Free advertising from Nicole Sullivan...
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2008/10...van-interview/
"JJ: Do you listen to music in general nowadays?
NS: I listen to what’s called ‘The Coffee House’ on Sirius [Radio]. That’s my favorite. They’re basically singer-songwriters. So it’s a lot of guitar people. You know the album from Once? Stuff like that."
SIRI closed up just under a penny @ .386...............
The ask in AH right now is .3974 and the bid right now in AH says .0039 ???
The new 2009 Dodge pickup comes with SIRIUS Backseat TV....
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...2%7D&dist=hppr
"-- Significantly upgraded interiors with segment-first surround-sound
audio system and live SIRIUS Backseat TV(TM)"
http://investor.sirius.com/secfiling...930413-08-6086
Form 8-K
Current Report
Filed Oct 20, 2008
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
_____________________
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): October 20, 2008
SIRIUS XM RADIO INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)
Delaware 0-24710 52-1700207
(State or other Jurisdiction (Commission File Number) (I.R.S. Employer
of Incorporation) Identification No.)
1221 Avenue of the Americas, 36 th Fl., New York, NY 10020
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (212) 584-5100
_____________________________
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:
o Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
o Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a -12)
o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d -2(b))
o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e -4(c))
Item 3.02. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.
We issued an aggregate of 67,038,070 shares of our common stock, par value $0.001 per share, in exchange for $30,500,000 principal amount of our 2½% Convertible Notes due 2009 (the “2½% Notes”) beneficially owned by institutional holders.
We did not receive any cash proceeds as a result of the exchange of our common stock for the 2½% Notes, which notes have been retired and cancelled. We executed these transactions to reduce our debt and interest cost, increase our equity, and improve our balance sheet. We may engage in additional exchanges in respect of our outstanding indebtedness if and as favorable opportunities arise.
The issuance of the shares of our common stock was made pursuant to the exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, contained in Section 3(a)(9) of such Act.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
SIRIUS XM RADIO INC.
By: /s/ Patrick L. Donnelly
Patrick L. Donnelly
Executive Vice President, General
Counsel and Secretary
Dated: October 20, 2008
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