FNG

Sirius XM Belt Tightening Begins

Brandon, good update. Please relate the move to prospective impact on company value. In a past exec position (engineering dept. VP, privately held company), I saw value decline as more and more austerity measures were implemented. Sales had overpromised based on company R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, and service/support capacity (had sold "vaporware" and expected fast-paced internal innovation by too few resources). Backlogged projects impacted contract and other customer satisfaction. In the same extended period, external risk to a major project for a Fortune 500 customer was realized when the customer killed the project due to a matter beyond our internal control: a senior management shakeup. (Old cutomer org president out, new president put moritorium on all projects to scrub ROI and decide which to keep or kill). Our internal focus shifted to damage control at the expense of than value delivery and growth. We implemented line item cut after cut and went through two rounds of painful downsizing to compensate for internal smoke blowing by Sales (which came out relatively unscathed) and an externally driven impact that hurt revenue forecast. Hard lessons were learned. Very hard. So, when reading your reports and other information about Sirius XM's circumstances, I look for qualified comments about the impact of belt tightening on company prospects. In other posts I have remarked on why I am long and will remain so. The example I give above is about another company with different circumstances. Sirius XM has tremendous potential--but also great financial and other challenges. Keep up the great reporting and give us more....