The Chief Financial Officer of US satellite radio network Sirius has said that if US media regulator the FCC insists of tricky conditions in order to give approval for the company's proposed merger with rivals XM then they'll happily walk away from the deal. Plans for the two satellite networks to merge have been under review for over a year now - the issue is whether the merger, which would result in just one satellite radio service in the US, would amount to a monopoly. XM and Sirius say no because, even merged, they will face mighty competitors from the traditional radio sector and growing online content service providers. Sirius CFO David Frear told reporters this week: "We won't agree to a set of conditions that's going to adversely impact, and would not be to the benefit of, our current subscribers, our future subscribers, and our shareholders. The FCC process is in many ways a political process. There is a well-worn tradition of exploiting, of opportunistic parties looking to exploit the regulatory process of the FCC for what is their personal gain. In a week, we'll be 15 months into this for what is honestly, in the broader media landscape, an incredibly unimportant public policy decision".
May 15, 2008
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1 min read
Sirius would walk away from XM deal if FCC conditions too tough
Sirius CFO David Frear says the company will walk away from its XM merger if the FCC imposes conditions harming subscribers or shareholders, after over a year of review.