XM-Sirius merger approved by DOJ
 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news...ion=2008032415

About freaking time!

yah, that did take awhile... both their stocks are up a bit...

I've been hanging on for 2 years, this should make it all worth it.

saw that this afternoon
hopefully this means cheaper units
i want my howard stern but im not paying out the ass for a home unit

Me so happy. Now I need it to rise like a balloon :)

Awesome friggen news! Hopefully my stocks make some $ now :)

I guess that's good news...

Hopefully they won't jack up the price

I want that fucking satellite network...

That's what I am worried about. There won't be a competitor to turn to.

Howard Stern was using this merger as one of the selling points to switch over while he was still on terrestrial radio.

Without any competition left, whats to stop them from raising the prices?
WG

Sure there is. There are plenty of options for one to listen to music if satellite radio price is too high. One would be regular radio which is already free. A duopoly does not competition make anyways. I have 2 ISPs that provide broadband in my area. Both have said they won't compete on price. Isn't that something competition is supposed to do, lower prices? And both have been true to their word.

You need to understand without the merger, within 3 years one or both would be out of busniess.

Yep.. That's the way I see it also.. Neither one has been profitable on their own..

Nice - Siruius is bleeding!

Unlike cable tv/satellite tv, the two satellite radio companies have completely different content from each other so there was no direct competition anyway. But both companies promised the DoJ that they wouldn't raise prices for consumers and also made some other promises regarding how they will do business if the merger were to go through.

There is a ton of competition. Ipods, free radio and internet radio to name a few and you can get most of the competition for free. The CEO of Sirius, Mel Karmazen, has said that the merger will let them lower the price and they will offer different packages and even an ala carte style system where for around $6 a month you can pick the 20 channels you want (or something of that nature).

This is a huge blow to free radio though because now satellite has all the major sports, over 100 channels of commercial free music and guys like Stern, playboy radio and Martha Stewart. I can see why free radio put up such a huge fight to keep this merger from happening.

Sirius is the best thing to happen to radio ever. I have it in my car, and also pay a paltry 2.99 extra to get streaming content to my desktop. CD quality, diverse seletion of genres/music, uncensored Stern, and limited commercials.
When I try to listen to terrestrial stations I get pissed due to all the shitty commercials and jerk off announcers. At that point I go college radio if I have to...

I wonder what the monthly price will be?

Still waiting on FCC approval but it should go through. Its about time I have been holding shares of both of these POS companies for years now. I hope as one they can at least start to break even by 2009.