If you owned 91 million shares, would you want the stock to tank?Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusXMInvestor
Again, where is the motive?
Printable View
If you owned 91 million shares, would you want the stock to tank?Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriusXMInvestor
Again, where is the motive?
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/news...FREE&cm_ite=NA
Technology Update
Sirius XM Mulls Reverse Stock Split
10/20/08 - 11:26 AM EDT SIRI (Stocks Under $10 PICK) Robert Holmes
Sirius XM (SIRI Quote - Cramer on SIRI - Stock Picks) is floating the idea of a potential reverse stock split in order to push its slumping share price higher in to avoid a delisting notice from the Nasdaq.
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. The move 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 the company's ability to refinance several debt obligations set to mature in 2009.
The stock was recently trading at 38 cents.
A Nasdaq stock must trade at $1 or more. If the price closes below that minimum required price for 30 consecutive trading sessions, Nasdaq sends a delisting notice that requires a company regain compliance within the next 180 calendar days.
Shares of Sirius XM last traded above the $1 threshold on Sept. 19, which means a delisting warning could come within the next two weeks.
"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 that a decrease in the number of shares outstanding is likely to improve the trading price for our common stock, and only if it's "in the best interests of the company and its stockholders."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Demian
Either Robert is trying to mislead people or he didn't get the memo about the Nasdaq's new rules...
No, I think he is just regurgitating press releases.
As far as Convergence, I have searched all over the web and have been unable to find any news releases about anything that was said, an it was not simulcast anywhere. Im sure we will get a wiff of something that he said later today. He may even mention the reverse split and the new Nasdaq rules...
Newman, do you know if those subscriber charts were ever updated? Do you know of any up to date subscriber charts?
I emailed Robert and pointed out the falsehood in his article and requested that he fix it as soon as possible...
I encourage everyone to do the same.......
http://www.thestreet.com/author/1100...olmes/all.html
You have got to be kidding me.................
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...C%7D&dist=hppr
The Dark Side of Sirius Satellite Radio
Last update: 1:42 p.m. EDT Oct. 20, 2008
NEW YORK, Oct 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Sweatshop Conditions at the Kiryung Electronics Factory
Labor rights watchdog challenges Howard Stern -- who lampooned Kathie Lee Gifford over the exploitation of child workers in Honduras who sewed her clothing for Wal-Mart -- to confront Sirius Satellite Radio for the abusive sweatshop conditions faced by women workers at the Kiryung Electronics factory in Korea, where they assembled Sirius Satellite Radios.
WHO: Charles Kernaghan, director, National Labor Committee
Women workers from the Kiryung Factory in Korea,
Representatives of the Korean Metal Workers Union.
WHAT: Attempt to meet with Sirius management. (This will be the third attempt to meet.)
Press conference
WHERE: Sirius Satellite Radio headquarters
1221 Avenue of the Americas (Entrance on 49th St. betw. 6th & 7th Ave.), NYC
WHEN: Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 1:00 p.m.
-- Over 250 production line workers at the Kiryung Electronics factory have
no rights and are held under conditions of constant uncertainty and
fear.
-- Married women limited to just three-month contracts so they can be fired
if they become pregnant.
-- Workers can be fired for using the bathroom.
-- Forced to work 13 to 14-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, sometimes
going for up to three months without a single day off. There are also
grueling all-night 24-hour shifts two or three times a month.
-- Workers making Sirius Satellite radios earn just $145 a week, despite
the fact that the cost of living in Seoul is as high or higher than in
New York City. Workers and their families must subsist on rice and
kimchee (pickled cabbage).
-- In the face of discrimination and abuse, the workers organized a union
in July 2005. Management immediately threatened to fire the women, who
then occupied the plant staging a sit-down strike.
-- Kiryung management informed the workers that at the insistence of Sirius
Satellite Radio, production of the radios would be relocated to a low
wage factory in China.
-- Hired goons also attacked the strikers, stomping, kicking and beating
the women.
-- For 1,160 days, the women have continued their strike in front of the
factory gates. The head of the local union at the Kiryung factory went
on a hunger strike for 94 days before being hospitalized in
mid-September. The situation has reached a crisis, which is why the
workers have come to New York to press Sirius Satelite Radio to
intervene.
Full Report: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=607
NLC Letter to Howard Stern: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=608
SOURCE National Labor Committee
http://www.nlcnet.org
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=607
The Dark Side of Sirius Satellite Radio
Abusive Sweatshop Conditions at the Kiryung Electronics Factory in South Korea
Women making Sirius Satellite Radios are stripped of their rights, forced to work grueling hours for below-subsistence wages, and attacked and beaten when they ask for their legal rights.
Howard Stern lampooned Kathie Lee Gifford over the exploitation of child workers in Honduras who sewed her clothing line. Does Howard Stern now have the independence to challenge Sirius Satellite Radio for exploitation of young women in Asia who make Sirius’s satellite radios?
Will Martha Stewart and Eminem speak out against the exploitation and violation of women’s rights?
SUMMARY
At the Kiryung Electronics Factory in South Korea, young women assembling Sirius Satellite Radios are stripped of their rights and forced to work grueling hours for below-subsistence wages. When the women sought their legal rights, they were attacked and beaten.
Over 250 production line workers at the Kiryung Electronics factory have no rights and are held under conditions of constant fear.
Married women are limited to just three-month contracts so they can be fired if they become pregnant.
Workers can be fired for using the bathroom, requesting to leave “early” when the regular shift ends at 5:00 p.m., for arriving a few minutes late, for asking for a sick day, or being unable to work on a weekend or national holidays.
Forced to work 13 to 14-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, sometimes going for up to three months without a single day off. There are also grueling all-night 24-hour shifts two or three times a month. After toiling all night, workers must still report for their next shift at 8:00 a.m. the following morning, leaving them working a 38-hour shift. Workers report toiling 100 to 120 hours of overtime a month.
Workers making Sirius Satelite radios earn just $145 a week, despite the fact that the cost of living in Seoul is just as high, if not higher, than in New York City. Paid below-subsistence wages, workers and their families must subsist on rice and kimchee (pickled cabbage).
The work pace is so grueling that workers cannot even raise their heads, talk or use the bathroom. The women must learn to “hold their bladder,” but report that they sometimes “leak.”
In the face of discrimination against pregnant women, the lack of rights, grueling hours and below-subsistence pay, the workers organized a union in July 2005. Management immediately threatened to fire the women, who then occupied the plant staging a sit-down strike. The sit-down lasted 55 days before the workers were driven from the factory by riot police.
Kiryung management informed the workers that at the insistence of Sirius Satellite Radio, production of the radios would be relocated to a low wage factory in China.
Hired goons also attacked the strikers, stomping, kicking and beating the women.
For 1,160 days, the women have continued their strike, setting up a tent city in front of the main gate of the factory. Over 1,000 supporters joined a one-day hunger strike to support the workers. The head of the local union at the Kiryung factory went on a hunger strike for 94 days before being hospitalized in mid-September 2008.
The struggle for justice continues, as a delegation of striking workers travels to the U.S. on October 15 to confront management at Sirius Satellite Radio and to seek the support of the American people in their just struggle.
Kiryung Electronics Factory
Kuro District, Seoul
South Korea
Chairman: Mr. Dong-Ryul Choi
Production: Sirius Satellite Radios.
(Kiryung management says they developed the satellite radios jointly with Sirius.)
Workers without rights:
Altogether, there were about 500 people at the Kiryung plant: 200 in management, research and development and sales, and 300 production line workers. At least 250 of the production line workers were hired under a job category in South Korea called “dispatch workers,” which in the United States would be a status well below that of even temporary workers. The name comes from the dispatch agencies which recruit and place workers in job openings. Once a worker is place in a company such as Kiryung, the dispatch agency has no further relationship with the worker. Dispatch workers have absolutely no rights, earn less than half of what regular permanent workers do and can be arbitrarily fired at the drop of a hat.
Discrimination against women:
The vast majority of dispatch production line workers at the Kiryung plant were women. To avoid having to pay maternity leave, management hired married women on just three-month contracts so they can easily be let go—fired—if they became pregnant. Unmarried women were allowed just six-month contracts for the same reason. Older women, who were unlikely to have children, were given one-year contracts.
Kiryung’s hiring practices blatantly violated Korean laws prohibiting sexual discrimination.
Workers in constant fear:
Dispatch, or irregular, workers have zero rights and can be arbitrarily fired for any reason at the drop of a hat. Management’s strategy to maintain a constant level of fear at the plant was to fire one dispatch worker every week. The workers referred to this as management’s “keeping the waters clean”—keeping everyone too terrified to even think of asking for their basic rights.
Women who could not stay for overtime were fired. Workers who asked for a sick day were terminated. When one woman who was feeling ill asked her line supervisor if she could go home, she was told: “Fine, go home, rest, and never come back again.” Another woman, who had suffered an occupational injury at work and asked to be temporarily moved to another department, was fired on the spot. Workers who arrived late or asked to be allowed to leave “early”—after the regular eight-hour shift—were fired. One woman, whose daughter was in a car accident earlier in the day, dared not leave work until 9:00 p.m. for fear of being fired. Anyone who talked back to a manager would be fired. Indeed, if a line supervisor did not like the looks of one of the women, she was fired.
Long grueling hours:
The routine shift for production line workers at the Kiryung factory was 13 to 14 hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. six days a week. (The workers were allowed 40 minutes for lunch, 30 minutes for supper at 5:00 p.m. and two ten-minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.) When there were pressing orders for Sirius Satelite radios, the women would work seven days a week, sometimes going for up to three months without a single day off. Before shipments to the U.S., dispatch workers also had to work some all-night shifts, which varied from line to line, but averaged two or three nights a month. After working all day and through the night, the women still had to report at 8:00 a.m. the following morning to work another 13 to 14-hour shift before being allowed to go home to rest. Some of these all-night shifts actually stretched out to 37 or 38 hours of work.
The workers report being required to remain for 100 or 120 hours of overtime a month.
Not only did the dispatch workers have to work at night and on weekends, they also had to work through summer vacations and even on the most important national holidays. If there were orders to complete for the Sirius radios, they had to work. This was true even during Korea’s most important holiday, Chuseok, the autumn harvest festival, when everyone travels home to their villages to be with their families and to honor their ancestors. (The importance of the Chuseok holiday could be compared with our Christmas.) It was a bitter experience for the women to be forced to work through this most important holiday.
The dispatch workers were often tired, exhausted, longing to rest and to spend more time with their families. But they had no other choice than to work the long overtime hours management demanded. If they refused, they would be fired. Also, their regular wages were so low they could not survive without overtime.
Below-subsistence Wages:
“We only work, worked like slaves for just 641,850 won [less than $630] a month.”
Dispatch workers did the exact same work as the full time employees—working right next to one another on the assembly line—yet they earned just about half the wages the regular worker received.
Dispatch workers earned 641,850 Korean won a month, or just $629.96. (In 2005, there were 1,023.75 won to $1.00 U.S.)
Dispatch Workers’ Wages
$3.62 an hour
$144.68 a week (40 hours)
$626.96 a month
$7,523.52 a year
Dispatch workers were essentially being paid the minimum wage in South Korea, which does not even come close to meeting basic subsistence level needs. The cost of living in Seoul where the Kiryung factory is located is at least as high, if not higher, as that of New York City. Certainly no one could survive in New York on $3.62 an hour wages, just as they could not make ends meet in Seoul. Despite the long overtime hours, dispatch workers and their families could only afford rice and kimchee, pickled cabbage, as their main staples. Their families also struggled to meet basic tuition costs to send their children to primary school.
There are 8.6 million dispatch workers in South Korea who are struggling to survive as third class citizens with no rights. This makes the long struggle of the brave women workers at the Kiryung factory all the more critical.
Not only long hours and no rights—the work was also done at a grueling pace:
For production line workers assembling Sirius Satellite Radios, the pace was fast and grueling. Production goals were set excessively high and supervisors put constant pressure on the women. The pace was so frantic workers dared not lift their heads and no one talked. Workers could not even use the bathroom. If they did, the work would simply pile up around them in their brief absence. The women tried to time their going to the bathroom to the ten minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. The women had to learn to “hold their bladders,” but there were times they “leaked a little.” Also, if they went to the bathroom too often, they could be fired.
The Women Fight Back:
The dispatch workers had had enough, and they decided to fight back. They organized a local union at the Kiryung Factory and affiliated to South Korea’s largest union, the progressive Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), which has 150,000 members.
As soon as the workers organized their union, on July 5, 2005, management threatened to fire every union member who had worked at the factory for less than a year, which was the majority of the production line workers—(given management’s practice of firing workers every week to “keep the waters clean”).
Not waiting to be fired, the workers went out on strike at 10:00 a.m. on August 24, 2005.
An Amazing Struggle Begins:
For 55 days the workers occupied the Kiryung factory, carrying out a sit-down strike between two assembly lines. The 200 strikers remained in the factory 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Korean Metal Workers Union and other supporters brought food to the workers.
Management immediately started threatening the workers, saying that the Sirius Radio Network in the United States was demanding that Kiryung relocate its production to China in order to cut costs. Either way, the striking workers were doomed, management told them. (A short time later, Kiryung did purchase land in China, building a factory which opened in the summer of 2007. Eighty percent of Kiryung’s production of Sirius Satellite radios are now produced in China. Kiryung uses five subcontract factories in South Korea to produce the other 20 percent of Sirius’s orders.)
On October 17, 2005 riot police stormed the factory, violently driving the striking workers outside. The strikers immediately took over the area in front of the factory’s main gates and set up a tent city. To date, the workers have continued their strike for going on 1,160 days!
Management hired 60 to 70 thugs to terrorize the strikers, who referred to as “meatheads” and “goons.” The thugs assaulted the striking women, even strangling and kneeling on top of them to humiliate them. Reportedly management pays these goons $200 a day, which is all the more incredible given that the women earned just $630 a month to make the Sirius Satellite radios!
Management also organized its regular, full-time male workers into a “We love Kinyung Electric Group,” and they also assaulted the striking workers. During the sit-down strike, these male workers ran through the factory kicking, stomping on and running over the women.
Management increased the height of its factory walls and installed barbed wire and surveillance cameras both inside and outside the factory. Surveillance cameras inside monitored the areas around the coffee machine, the locker room and bathrooms. Sliding metal gates were installed inside the factory to control the flow of people should the strikers ever find their way inside the plant again.
Management also filed court suits against 64 of the strikers, claiming their sit-down strike obstructed factory business and is seeking $4.3 million (U.S.) in damages for the strike. (The courts found that the company was vastly over-exaggerating its losses. Obstruction of business is a criminal offense in South Korea, punishable by up to five years in prison. Both the local union president and the vice president spent time in prison for obstructing business.)
Despite constant attacks over the course of three long years, the mostly women strikers never gave in. For the last 1,160 days they have organized a picket line in front of the factory gate every morning and a candle-light vigil each night. The workers have never missed a single day! Over 1,040 supporters joined a collective one-day hunger strike demanding that the president of Korea step forward to resolve the crisis at Kiryung. On June 10, 2008, ten unionists went on a hunger strike. The chair of the Kiryung union, Ms. So-yeon Kim, continued her hunger strike for 94 days before being hospitalized, seriously weakened, with an irregular heartbeat and lung function.
For more than three years, the striking workers at the Kiryung factory have fought for justice, respect for fundamental labor rights and an end to the exploitation of dispatch workers, who have been stripped of their rights. On October 15—the very day that a delegation of striking workers and union supporters was to leave for the United States to confront Sirius Radio and seek the support of the American people—the goons again attacked the picket line in front of the factory gate, tearing down the strikers’ tents.
The striking women and men have shown enormous courage and resolve. Despite constant attacks, the striking workers have already won some precedent-setting breakthroughs that could improve respect for labor rights across Asia. The controversy surrounding the struggle at the Kiryung factory pushed the Korean Government to rule that the indefinite exploitation of dispatch workers is illegal and that the dispatch workers at the Kiryung factoryshould be rehired as full-time, regular workers. Kiryung management refuses to do so, but the Korean Government continues to face significant pressure from the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), the International Metal Workers Federation (IMF) and the U.N.’s International Labor Organization (ILO) to stop the illegal exploitation of dispatch workers.
The Workers’ Demands
More than three years after being forced to strike, 32 Kiryung workers remain on the picket line fighting for respect for women’s and labor rights and an end to the exploitation of dispatch, or irregular, workers, who are stripped of their most basic rights.
Immediate reinstatement of the 32 strikers, as permanent full-time employees at one of Kiryung Electronics sister factories, with no wage, hour or gender discrimination.
The Kiryung Electronics factory should pay all back wages to these workers, along with compensation for the physical and emotional hardship suffered by the women over the course of the last three years of struggle.
If Kiryung management has the will and good faith to negotiate with the striking workers, this crisis can finally be positively resolved.
You can view a very moving slide show put together by the striking workers and the Korean Metal Workers Union at: http://www.nlcnet.org/admin/media/po...Kiryung_en.ppt
Are these the workers who make the Starmate 5?
I bet the NAB, GS, and some hedge funds gave a huge donation to the National Labor Committee......
Is the National Labor Committee allowed to short stocks?
If they are so underpaid, how could they afford the air fare to New York?
I can't even afford the air fare to the shareholders meeting in New York......
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........Quote:
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Demian
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