As long as Ron & Fez stay on the air, and Lucy stays the same I couldn't care less.

Edit: This merger is far from approved and far from being undertaken.

Edited by - bornyo on 2/19/2007 7:00:48 PM

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From my own personal interests, I hope that the FCC or the FTC prevents this from happening. DirecTV & Dish weren't allowed to merge. I don't see how this is any different.

If it does go through, I guess that I'll be getting a pro-rated refund on my 5 year pre-paid subscription.

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Edited by - Bill on 2/19/2007 10:16:57 PM

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One of the things that either Karmazin or Parsons pointed out during today's Wall Street press conference when asked about what would stop a united satellite company from raising their rates was that less than 10% of the adults in the US subscribe to satellite radio. Their goal is to attract the remaining 90%, who are currently listening to terrestrial radio for free. That's where the money is. Just increasing the rates on the other 10% that makes up their existing subscribers isn't what will make them profitable.

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If this truly gives satellite radio a better chance at staying alive, then I'm all for it. The mere thought of losing my XM and having to go back to AM/FM is downright sickening.

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But mergers also kind of irritate me because the companies will often keep their disparate names as they they hadn't joined and a customer who hasn't been paying attention may not even know that he's now doing business with, say AT&T instead of SBC or whatever.

There are companies, for example, I think Whirlpool and Kenmore washers are essentially the same machines (not sure which company actually makes them) with different brand names on them. The Chevy Nova and the Toyota Corolla were basically the same car for a while.

I guess I just know that all most of this does is serves to add confusion to the market and diminish the customer's number of options....while simultaneously keeping prices up. Less competition will naturally allow a given company more leverage on pricing.

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With satellite radio, they're not only competing in delivering content, they're delivering different content. It would be nice if there were 3rd party producers of content and the satellite companies were just competing in the delivery of that content. Then neither company would be overspending on producing content, they would be spending their money on providing better hardware and delivery mechanisms (such as repeaters in areas that can't receive satellite service, like cities and tunnels).

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Millions of people bought Sirius shares at $6 to $8 for their retirement accounts, and rode them down to $3.50, never losing faith in Stern. At this point, they need to face up to the fact that they're screwed. Stern made half a billion. They will make nothing. They can file SIRI stock certificates away under "S" for stupid. They blew it.

Read on

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