Sirius XM Has Partnered with Apple - Is Google Next? 36 comments
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By Brandon Matthews
Now that Sirius XM (SIRI) has finally put an Apple (AAPL) iPhone app on the market (after just two short years of consumers asking for it), it seems the company may finally be ready to commit to thinking outside the box. The immense popularity of the free app has taken many people within Sirius XM by surprise, and there can be no doubt that it will translate into added revenue as current subscribers upgrade and trial members become subscribers. As CNBC noted, this market could open up a whole new business for Sirius XM. The increase in marketing on billboards nationwide and on Internet sites such as ESPN and CNN is a testament to the fact.
I have been considering what might be Sirius XM’s next move, and I happen to be holding it in my hand right now. The G1 is a T-Mobile Smartphone that runs on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, which I personally chose over the iPhone. Although there are certainly many more iPhones in circulation than G1’s, the sales rate of these phones is nothing to overlook. Apple had the advantage of a two year head start, but the G1’s have been selling like hotcakes ever since their introduction last year with nearly 2 million phones sold already. Message boards around the world have sprung up and the hot topic on those boards has become the Sirius XM iPhone app.
This article is not an ad for the G1 however. It’s about the potential of Google’s Android system and how Sirius XM might use it to grow their subscriber base. Other smart phones that include the Android system are now being produced as well, such as Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA, as well as many others, which is the reason I believe that Sirius XM’s next mobile app will be for the Android phones rather than the Palm (PALM) Pre for example. The G1 is also getting ready for its next upgrade as well to better compete with the iPhone 3Gs.
One very interesting note on the Android system - there is no Pandora. In fact, the only radio app available is Last FM. Unlike the Apple app which required approval and years of development, the majority of the App code is already written now. In fact, the code can be uploaded right here with only a Google account, password and Twenty Five Dollars! You read that right….25 bucks!
I’m sure it will need a little tweaking, but all in all, Sirius XM can strike while the iron’s hot with this app, unless of course they’d like to give the competition another head start.
Position: Long SIRI
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This article has 36 comments:
I just watched the Stock Shock movie and find the entire SIRI history just deplorable!
thanks for the comment on the movie. what is deplorable is the news media's none coverage of the biggest story to be told in 2009 - Stock Shock. Thats ok....soon the media will be forced to tell this story, when more bloggers like Brandon and you continue to tell the World the Stock Shock Story. I'm now up to 27K on twitter. as we grow together, so will the Stock Shock story.
Gee, I love getting ---ewed over and then saying thanks for doing it! YEAH RIGHT!
Deplroable! Just deplorable!
I do NOT see life in SIRI under Mel’s watch. He has destroyed the company. Oh yah, everything looks good now that he has taken us to hell. You can make poop look good if your starving.
Let’s take a look at the company. SIRI has debt. SIRI has more debt than it can support. The interest on the debt is over 500 million per year. Mel has refinanced endlessly and mounted debt as if he had plans to print money like the FED.
Someone today provided this summary of upcoming debt payments. It is massive!!!
-----------
“so let's see, $500mil in interest each year (and going higher with
each re-fi)... plus the $260mil in convertibles that comes due in Dec...
2010: ~$500mil in interest plus $350 in loans coming due
2011: ~$500mill in interest plus $650 in bonds and loans due
2012: ~$500mil in interest plus $500mil in bonds and loans due
2013: ~$500mil in interest plus $1.8bil in bonds and loans due
2014: ~$500mil in interest plus $555mil in bonds and loans due”
----------
SAVE SIRI???
Currently and as in the past, SIRI can not support this debt load. SIRI would need 52 million subscribers at the current price. All SIRI spending would need to be kept to nil for the next 3 years.
The end of SIRI will come in 2013 if Mel fails to pay 2.3 BILLION that will come due. SIRI DOES NOT NEED TO BE HANDING OUT PAY RAISES AND CANDY!!! SIRI needs to pay down debt and keep the belt tight or else it is dead.
Mel is NOT the man you want to save SIRI. He will get paid and rob us all blind. Maybe Malone will take over in the real bankruptcy…
Long SIRI
What Mel suspected of doing is not legal but is done everyday by company executives. They all present an image of owning and potential loses of stock. However, via virtually untraceable holding companies and other investment vehicles, gangsters like Mel wheel and deal private trades or deals that use inside information. Simple example - make a friend rich and after your term as CEO have your friend loan you a percent of what was made. Mel is a gangster we have been investigating for 10 years.
Using the example, it is easy to understand a second example in how Mel could have provided Malone information to short SIRI and make millions. The result is Malone may have loaned SIRI money stolen from SIRI stock holders by shorting. The profits for Malone continue as now the stolen money is collecting more stock and interest at a high coast to SIRI investors. These things are being investigated and Malone was just fined 1.5 million for failing disclosure (Insiding).
MEL GETs 250,000.00 RAISE and option to buy STOCK LOCKED AT 43 cents.
THAT EXTRA BOND MONEY JUST GOT SPENT!!!
On June 30, 2009, we entered into an amendment (the "Amendment") to the amended Employment Agreement, dated November 18, 2004, with Mel Karmazin (the "Employment Agreement"). The Amendment (i) extends the term of the Employment Agreement through and until December 31, 2012, (ii) increases his base salary from $1,250,000 per year to $1,500,000 per year beginning on January 1, 2010, and (iii) provides for the grant of an option to purchase 120,000,000 shares of our common stock, at an exercise price of $0.430 per share (the closing price of our common stock on June 30, 2009) (the "Option"). Other than as provided in the Amendment, the Employment Agreement will continue in accordance with its terms.
TRANSLATION for the "Unwashed"
Mel can now buy 120,000,000 shares at a locked in price of 43 cents. He can do the "AT ANY TIME" no matter the current trade value/price. So, if in January SIRI is 5.00, Mel can buy it for 43 cents.
(iii) provides for the grant of an option to purchase 120,000,000 shares of our common stock, at an exercise price of $0.430 per share (the closing price of our common stock on June 30, 2009) (the "Option").
Next time you hear "Oh, but Mel owns stock and also loses", remember how he gets paid.
READ IT TWICE. DO NOT ASK ME FOR PROOF NEXT WEEK
The link is here …
biz.yahoo.com/e/090701...
Please don't say it is NOT true next week. It has been posted!!!
Look at the Merger close. If you read the FCC and Congressional Hearings documentation on the SIRI merger something pops out:
One of the reasons used to justify the merger is “CENTRAL CONTROLE OF SATALITE RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM”.
SIRI is the company used as a holding company for the US Government centralized control of satellite frequency.
That is why SIRI will live and never die. Mel has the power of God and he can do no wrong. No stock manipulation will ever be investigated without massive public demand. Mel and Goldman Sacks can use that (FBI said,” Goldman Sacks Unfair Trading Software”) and they will milk investors until they cry.
Oh yes, I can see Mel dealing out some spectrum for a military radio station to keep our “SMOKE BANNED” soldiers totally misinformed…
Siri will be at $1.00 by year end or soonerrrrrrr Jul 12 11:26 AM
None of that however excuses what the shorts did in order to get control/destroy this company, and certainly doesn't excuse the total lack of oversight by the SEC.
"short" selling that people talk about. However, I hope that numbers will make or break the stock. Up to this point the company has been losing money and is in a lot of debt. The company needs to show that they are turning things around by reducing debt and increasing revenue and subscribers. Postive subscribere growth, I believe will take care of the short sellers. I have been a subscriber since 2002. I remember seeing the commercials in 2001 on tv and thinking, "why would people pay for radio?" After, hearing xm radio in the now bankrupt circuit city when I would shop there, i decided to give it a try. I have kept it ever since! Note that XM never had Howard Stern and they had about 8 millions subs, to all the iphone app bashers. XM radio in no way is comparable to regular radio. The company needs to get more people to come to understand that. Why buy music, or waste time downloading music when you can always have music, sports and uncensored talk. People talk about the cost sometimes as being expensive. $12.95 per month or about $3.00 and change a week is very reasonable. People pay more for that for HBO or movie chanels from their cable or satelite providers, donuts, coffee, bottled water, etc....I personally cut my HBO and Showtime and replaced that cost with XM. I never got to see the Sopranos but I've had many hours of entertainment while i commute, work out, or just do chores in the house.....Pandora and other "almost free" sites will soon be out of business. Royalty fees will be their demise. They will have to start charging a fee to everyone and then people won't pay for computerized no personality streaming of songs. As a hip hop lover, I personally love a mix show by a top dj rather than a "juke box" of similar songs like Pandora plays.
> However, I hope that numbers will make or break the stock. <
With this I can agree. Unfortuneately, this market as it exists today is just so manipulated that "numbers" usually don't mean that much after all.
I know your style now.....LOL
Mr. Stupid
On Jul 12 10:38 AM SIRI-Doom wrote:
> Oh yes, I can see Mel dealing out some spectrum for a military radio
> station to keep our “SMOKE BANNED” soldiers totally misinformed
How long will Mel make us wait for the news? How many of the 1 million FREE App downloads did NOT become paid subscribers?
How bad is the news? The more BAD the news, the longer MEL makes you wait. Will we see the 2nd Q reporst in the last minute od the last hour of the last day?
SIRI BAD NEWS? The street estimate 1.6 million subscribers will be lost ths year.
If this is true, SIRI will be 18 cents by end of July.
Shhhh, quiet man. We want SIRI to go up.
So lie and cheat and never tell the truth. Then you can complain about no justice. Go ahead and complain about the SEC not investigating anything and no accountability.
You can NOT shush up and suppress the truth and then complain about accountability.
Accountability and fair play in the market starts with YOU and ME!!!
Investigate yourself!!!
On Wall Street, they call this liquidity -- a polite way of saying "the good old boys buying and selling the same old stocks to each other."
Not hiting the used car market by selling new radios. Not a new deal with Mercedes. Just more free stuff to keep subscriber numbers up with unpaid users...
Used Gas Hogs get free SIRI
If they already have a SIRI radio installed.
Your message is one which you have stated over....and....over. While I appreciate your the knowledge I have gained from your posting, I haven't learned anything new since you started posting. If you want to be taken seriously, tone down the rhetoric and stop copying and pasting of the same information in every blog associated with Siri.
On Jul 13 08:21 AM SIRI-Doom wrote:
> Oh yah, everything looks good now that Mel has taken us to hell.
> You can make poop look good if your starving.
On Jul 13 08:49 AM thenewwguy wrote:
> Siri-Doom
> Your message is one which you have stated over....and....over. While
> I appreciate your the knowledge I have gained from your posting,
> I haven't learned anything new since you started posting. If you
> want to be taken seriously, tone down the rhetoric and stop copying
> and pasting of the same information in every blog associated with
> Siri.
in the second half of June, the exchange said on Friday, suggesting an increase
in bearish sentiment in the stock market.
COMPANY NET CHANGE PCT CHANGE
----------------------...
FIVE BIGGEST INCREASES:
Sirius XM Radio (SIRI.O) 29,846,671 18.09
Sirius XM Radio FIVE BIGGEST Short INCREASES
If everything is so up, why do the big boys keep shorting SIRI?
Sirius XM bearish
On Jul 12 09:54 AM SIRI-Doom wrote:
> Thus far all I have been blogging about is Mel, poor management,
> and suspected manipulation. I like SIRI and use it. I would like
> to see it live.
>
> I do NOT see life in SIRI under Mel’s watch. He has destroyed the
> company. Oh yah, everything looks good now that he has taken us to
> hell. You can make poop look good if your starving.
>
> Let’s take a look at the company. SIRI has debt. SIRI has more debt
> than it can support. The interest on the debt is over 500 million
> per year. Mel has refinanced endlessly and mounted debt as if he
> had plans to print money like the FED.
>
> Someone today provided this summary of upcoming debt payments. It
> is massive!!!
> -----------
> “so let's see, $500mil in interest each year (and going higher with
>
> each re-fi)... plus the $260mil in convertibles that comes due in
> Dec...
>
> 2010: ~$500mil in interest plus $350 in loans coming due
> 2011: ~$500mill in interest plus $650 in bonds and loans due
> 2012: ~$500mil in interest plus $500mil in bonds and loans due<br/>2013:
> ~$500mil in interest plus $1.8bil in bonds and loans due
> 2014: ~$500mil in interest plus $555mil in bonds and loans due”<br/>----------
>
>
> SAVE SIRI???
> Currently and as in the past, SIRI can not support this debt load.
> SIRI would need 52 million subscribers at the current price. All
> SIRI spending would need to be kept to nil for the next 3 years.
>
>
> The end of SIRI will come in 2013 if Mel fails to pay 2.3 BILLION
> that will come due. SIRI DOES NOT NEED TO BE HANDING OUT PAY RAISES
> AND CANDY!!! SIRI needs to pay down debt and keep the belt tight
> or else it is dead.
>
> Mel is NOT the man you want to save SIRI. He will get paid and rob
> us all blind. Maybe Malone will take over in the real bankruptcy…
>
>
> Long SIRI
Selling XM gear would be a good idea. But, I do not see Mel opening a door to a competitor to use XM gear.
Also, I recall a problem in the firmware upgrade to XM gear that prevented SIRI upgrade in its current channel configuration. Finally, SIRI must maintain both services for 5 years as per the FCC merger agreement.
Some talk was going around about using XM gear for Internet but that also was scraped. I had hoped to see more mobile TV but even this has hit a wall of contract and FCC problems.
SIRI lunched a new Satellite last week from Russia. With so much XM gear in the air, I am sure upgrades would have been done, if possible. However, SIRI purchased the new satellite years before the merger.
Life Span of a satellite is 5 to 15 years. It was reported in February that XM gear is already reporting power problems and one SIRI sat has bad cells. SIRI may not have any gear to sell in a year or three. Speculative…
I see the 10:30 am 40 cents... I am selling now before the 11 PM dive.
On a positive note. Sirius has done some major changes since q1. Sirius/xm is on a contract with VW to have sirius/xm in pre-owned VW's. Just today it was announced that sirius/xm was giving away 3 months free to pre-owned mercededs benz purchases.
In light of this topic it shows that sirius/xm can adapt into the used car market as well as the new car market. It is estimated that there will be more used vehicles bought than new cars.
With the addition of the iphone app sirius is on a roll for the q3 of this year to make 500,000 subscribers.
Used Gas Hogs get free SIRI
If they already have a SIRI radio installed.
Not hiting the used car market by selling new radios. Not a new deal with Mercedes.
Just more free stuff to keep subscriber numbers up with unpaid users... Cooking the numbers with free users for the 2nd Q report.
On Jul 13 10:22 AM SIRI-Doom wrote:
> Conorport
>
> Selling XM gear would be a good idea. But, I do not see Mel opening
> a door to a competitor to use XM gear.
>
> Also, I recall a problem in the firmware upgrade to XM gear that
> prevented SIRI upgrade in its current channel configuration. Finally,
> SIRI must maintain both services for 5 years as per the FCC merger
> agreement.
>
> Some talk was going around about using XM gear for Internet but that
> also was scraped. I had hoped to see more mobile TV but even this
> has hit a wall of contract and FCC problems.
>
> SIRI lunched a new Satellite last week from Russia. With so much
> XM gear in the air, I am sure upgrades would have been done, if possible.
> However, SIRI purchased the new satellite years before the merger.
>
>
> Life Span of a satellite is 5 to 15 years. It was reported in February
> that XM gear is already reporting power problems and one SIRI sat
> has bad cells. SIRI may not have any gear to sell in a year or three.
> Speculative…
Opened a trigger to buy back at 368 cents.
Day is over... Going to have a ham sandwich and take a nap...
LOL
The word from a SEC investigator who does no want to be named.
Mel is lobbying with NasD to lift the 1.00 rule suspension. SIRI lawyers have been in talks lobbying with NasD officials to reinstate the rule.
If the rule is enforced, SIRI must get the share price over 1.00 within (about 90 days). Mel has authority to split (10-50 to 1) only if the rule is enforced and SIRI gets a letter warning of a NasD delisting.
Mel wants the rev-split and would like to announce the split in the 2Q report. Mel has his lawyers lobbying the NasD to get it done.
So, dump on any news of the split. SIRI will be hammered after the split. IMHO, Mel will probably go for the entire 50 to 1 because he knows he is going to get hammered back under the buck at any amount less. (Historically most stocks that rev-split get hammered at first.)