Sirius XM Satellite Radio

For this particular assignment, I was to choose an existing, publically owned company to research and do a background report on. I decided to view the public companies link, provided on the module 1, Assignment 3 page, and I noticed that Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Inc. was rated #1 in top stocks by trade volume. I found it impressive that it was ranked higher than Facebook and Microsoft Corp. alone. This is what originally caught my attention about the company, but I felt it was a great corporation to do my paper on because I have been a customer of XM satellite radio way before they merged with Sirius and I have no complaints.

I am a huge fan of Sirius XM radio and if I lost my account with this company, I would be lost, myself. I thought it would be interesting to learn more about this company, so Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Inc. is the company I have decided to do my background report on. What is Sirius XM Satellite Radio? Sirius XM Satellite Radio is the largest radio broadcaster measured by income and has 25. 6 million subscribers. It offers commercial-free music, premier sports, live events, news, comedy, exclusive talk, entertainment, and the most complete line up of Latin commercial-free music, sports, and talk programming in radio.

Sirius XM is one of the world’s largest pure-play audio entertainment companies and is among the largest subscription media companies in the USA offering a collection of exclusive content that covers all genres and interests. (www. siriusxm. com) What Sirius XM Has to Offer its Customers: Sirius XM Satellite Radio is available via satellite, through the Sirius XM Radio apps for smart phones and other connected devices, as well as online at siriusxm. com. You can have their service installed in your home or office and Sirius XM has arrangements with every major automaker for installation of satellite radio in their vehicles.

Listeners can personalize Sirius XM music channels using MSXM and listen to thousands of hours of programming using Sirius XM on demand. The service provides premium traffic, weather data, and information services in cars, trucks, RVs, boats, and aircraft through Sirius XM Traffic®, Naveather™, Sirius XM Aviation, Sirius Marine™, Sirius Marine Weather, and XMWX Marine™. How Did it All Begin? In 1988, the American Mobile Satellite Corporation (AMSC) was formed and was an association of several organizations who were originally dedicated to satellite broadcasting of telephone, fax and data signals.

In 1992, AMSC established a unit called the American Mobile Radio Corporation dedicated to developing a satellite-based digital radio service; this was spun off as XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. in 1999. The satellite service was officially launched on September 25, 2001. On July 29, 2008, XM and their competitor Sirius Satellite Radio decided to merge once the U. S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved, Sirius XM Radio, Inc. was formed and on November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups.

The proposed merger was opposed by those who felt a merger would create a monopoly. Sirius and XM argued that a merger was the only way that satellite radio would survive. The two companies supposedly weren’t ever a loud to own each other’s license. CEO, Mel Karmazin ignored this rule, proceeding and gambling that the FCC would consider other audio entertainment to be competitors and allow their merger to proceed by waiving the rule.

17 months after the companies merger they had a total of more than 18.5 million subscribers. As of quarter 2 of 2013, Sirius XM had over 25 million subscribers. (www. siriusxm. com) Finance Through my research, I came across a letter written by former Chief Executer Officer, Mel Karmazin, to the stockholders and it was dated April 2012. Mr. Karmazin began the letter by saying “We closed on the merger of Sirius and XM just over three years ago and are proud of our achievements since then. The merger has delivered extraordinary benefits to the company and its stockholders.

Our execution delivered the benefits we promised when we announced the merger in early 2007 and consummated the transaction in the late summer of 2008. Today, we are the largest radio company in the world ranked by revenue. www. siriusxmradio. weebly. com” The letter goes on to disgust how their subscribers grew to an all-time high, totaling almost 21. 9 million by the end of 2011. Year-over-year free cash flow more or less doubled to $416 million.

The letter describes how in 2011, they saw their highest subscriber growth since their merger, adding 1.7 million new subscribers. The last thing the letter detailed was the importance of their employees. “Everything we accomplish and all the value we create is built on the dedication of our outstanding team of employees, who are focused on increasing revenue, managing costs, and delivering profits. www. siriusxmradio. weebly. com” In 2011, Sirius XM Radio’s revenue per employee averaged about $2 million. The greatest financial move for Sirius XM was the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio in July 2008.

The expense on Sirius XM’s behalf is pretty low. On average, an XM satellite will cost around $30,000 to get licensed and launched which will last for 10 years. They pay around $45,000 to artists in royalties which will last about 9 years, so the output cost is extremely low compared to the annual income of $1. 63 billion. There was a close threat of bankruptcy for the company in Feb. of 2009 when their stock price dropped to an all-time low of $0. 05 per share, but, media mogul, John Malone came to their rescue with emergency funding of $5,000,000,000.(www. siriusxm. weebly. com)

What’s the Future for Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Inc: The future of Sirius XM Radio is unpredictable with competition growing in the internet radio market threatening to steal over half of Sirius XM’s business. Sirius XM offers services over the internet and mobile devices, the programming being far from that of other competitors. As long as radios are installed in cars, and if Sirius XM can become the standard alongside AM/FM radio with becoming more involved at a local level, satellite radio could be the ruler of all radio broadcasting. Sirius XM’s Mission Statement & My Interpretation:

“With Sirius XM, listeners will enjoy the clearest, hottest, hippest, and most provocative radio entertainment, seamlessly across the country. Wherever they live, whenever they want, in any style they can imagine, blues, classical, Tejano, rock, oldies, jazz, R&B, country, gospel, rap, news, talk; Sirius XM Satellite Radio will provide the quality programming, choice and convenience that today’s consumers demand.” (www. siriusxmradio. weebly. com)

I think that they are conveying the message that you will be satisfied with an array and variety of music, no matter where you are at and that it will be high quality. Location, Location, Location: Sirius XM Radio is an American broadcasting company that provides satellite radio services operating in the U. S. The company also has a Canadian subsidiary called Sirius XM Canada, an affiliate company that provides Sirius XM service in Canada. (www. wikipedia. org)