Second, there's a proxy filing out from Sirius yesterday that shows, in addition to a bonus of $3 million, $1.25 million in salary and $2.83 million in stock awards, Karmazin got $24.1 million in options awards (Sub. req.) in 2006. At a time when both options grants specifically and executive compensation in general is under intense scrutiny, Karmazin's $31.18 total pay package is not going to help the merger go through.
Finally, Bloomberg News has a feature today on the "rogue antennas" that XM put up to overcome coverage gaps, particularly in urban areas, calling them "a network of hundreds of antennas that were built and operated in violation of U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules."
(Just curious: is a "rogue antenna" one that takes in unauthorized signals, like pirated Rangers games, and broadcasts then to non-subscribers?)
All of this means that the XM-Sirius deal, which many observers consider vital to the survival of satellite radio, could be dead in the water. Personally, I'm with New Yorker financial columnist James Surowiecki, who wrote last month, " Consumers … have little to fear from a merged satellite company in the radio market, and they may actually have a lot to gain."
And isn't it a little late in the game for Congress to get on its hind legs and start barking about media consolidation?
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