Go look at both companies balance sheet and then come back and say that with a straight face. It will be a merger because there is lots of bleeding and Sirius and XM have junk credit ratings.
Without the merger BOTH companies will fail in the next 3-5 years, even with the merger there is not guarantee a combined company will survive either.
Karmizan will be the CEO of the combined company because he is very good at what he does.
Once the merger does happen the main gain is the bandwith, shared operating expenses and non-competing for exclusive talent that doomed the business in the first place (Howards $500MM and MLB $650MM).
I cant see how the FCC will see it as a Monopoly with free radio and MP3 players kicking Sat Rad's butt every day.
Net adds these days are deplorable.
Just a quick snippet of shareholder equity... or lack thereof from Q3 2007.
XM Owners Equity = ($660 Miliion). Has more than doubled to the negative side in the last year.
XM Debt = $1.4 Billion and Increasing each quarter.
Sirius Owners Equity = ($540 Million). Again has more than doubled to the downside in the last year.
Sirius Debt = $1.3 Billion and Increasing each quarter.
Both companies are really hurting... bad.