Research Firm To Come Out Against Sirius-XM Merger

[Randall]

- Report

Last update: 4/3/2007 5:01:28 AM

 

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The influential research firm Carmel Group, whose analysis helped kill the 2003 merger of EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV Group Inc. , will release a new report Tuesday that outlines arguments against merging satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. , The New York Post reported in its Tuesday editions.

 

Sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters, which has already come out against the deal, the 11-page independent white paper includes a point-by-point rebuttal to the six main arguments put forth by Sirius and XM in favor of a merger.

 

The Post reports that the paper concludes that that approval of the deal will result "in less service, less affordability, less diversity and less choice in content and hardware."

 

A key element of the report, and one likely to be a main focal point for regulators, is a "ping-pong chart," which lists nine actions initiated by either Sirius or XM and the reaction they provoked in the other, the paper reported.

 

The Carmel Group devised a similar chart in its analysis of the EchoStar-DirecTV merger that is widely credited with providing the foundation for the arguments that the Federal Communications Commission applied in unanimously rejecting that deal.

[AtomicCEO]

I guess I didn't care if they formed a monopoly because I was never even thinking about being a customer anyway. It's a pretty weak monopoly when you can get the same stuff for free with standard equipment.

[H8tank]

Sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters,

 

Of course, they would rather sirius and XM both fail.

 

It's a pretty weak monopoly when you can get the same stuff for free with standard equipment.

 

 

 

No, that means it's not a monopoly at all.

 

Over air, via sattelite, over internet, there a many ways to get radio and programing.