WASHINGTON, DC – XM and Sirius Satellite Radio have spent at least $69 million dollars seeking government approval of their proposed merger-to-monopoly, according to public filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For XM, a filing only discloses expenses through December 31, 2007 amounting to $29.5 million. Merger-related expenses for Sirius were reported in the company's 2007 10-K and their 10-Q for the first quarter of 2008. According to those filings, Sirius's merger related expenses amounted to $29.4 million in 2007 and just over $10 million from January 1 - March 31, 2008.
XM failed to report merger-related expenses for the first quarter of 2008, and neither company has reported second-quarter merger-related expenses.
NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said, "Given the satcasters' exorbitant spending reported so far, it is well within reason to assume their combined merger-related expenses are approaching 100 million dollars."
"From the beginning, we knew XM and Sirius would say anything to gain blessing for a government-sanctioned monopoly, despite their years of brazenly abusing FCC rules," said Wharton. "Now we know they will spend anything as well. But they are also finding that government-sanctioned monopolies apparently don't come cheap."
According to the companies' SEC filings, the figures breakdown as follows:
XM Radio: $29.5 million in 2007 alone
XM reported spending $29.5 million on merger expenses from December 31, 2006 to December 31, 2007. (Full Source: XM Satellite Radio Holdings, XM Satellite Radio Inc., 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2007; 10-Q For Period Ending March 31, 2008.)
Sirius Satellite Radio - $39.5 million through March 2008
Sirius incurred $29.4 million in merger related costs for the year ended December 31, 2007. (Full Source: Sirius Satellite Radio, 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2007)
From January 1 to March 31, 2008, Sirius spent just over $10 million on activities directly related to the merger. (Full Source: Sirius Satellite Radio, 10-Q for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2007; 10-Q for Period Ending March 31, 2008.)
About NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts. Information about NAB can be found at www.nab.org.
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