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Consumers have been avidly following news of the anticipated merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. The merger has already been held up longer than expected due to close scrutiny by the Department of Justice and the FCC. Several weeks ago it was expected that word would be quickly coming regarding approval of the merger. That has not yet occurred; however, and now it is anticipated that approval may not arrive until the end of May or possibly even June.

Currently the FCC is still expected to approve the merger while asking for conditions that are only modest at the most. Several weeks ago word was released that the DOJ had completed the investigation of the merger proposal, which was announced more than a year ago. The DOJ reported that they would not be taking any action on the matter. This was certainly welcome news. The Department of Justice concluded after months of investigation that the proposed merger would not be anti-competitive. This meant that the last hold-up for approval was left to the FCC. When satellite radio licenses were originally granted by the FCC back in 1997, mergers were prohibited.

There has been concern issued by attorneys general in a handful of states. Those states requested that the FCC reject the merger proposal on the basis that it was anti-competitive. In the event that the FCC goes ahead with approval for the merger, those particular states are requesting that the FCC requires the combined satellite radio entity to lease bandwidth and make it available for free satellite radio service. No ruling has been made on this request yet.

In light of the fact that a final decision has not yet been reached regarding the merger, both XM and Sirius have decided to delay their stockholder meetings, which are typically held on an annual basis. The meetings have been delayed pending additional information regarding the timing of the proposed merger of Sirius and XM. The meeting had been originally scheduled for Friday, May 1st. That meeting has now been rescheduled for May 20th; however. Stockholder approval for the proposed merger was obtained by both Sirius and XM in November of 2007.

If the merger is approved, as it is anticipated it will be in the coming months, the combination of XM and Sirius would essentially involve a buyout of XM by Sirius amounting to some $5 billion. The combined efforts of Sirius and XM would lead to more than 17 million satellite radio subscribers. The CEO of Sirius, Mel Karmazin, is expected to head the merged companies.

The benefits to subscribers from the merger are expected to be tremendous as subscribers will no longer need to choose from one or the other satellite radio programming. For prospective subscribers who have been waiting to see how proposed merger will turn out, this will be truly welcome news. If subscribers wish to continue with programming from one provider they will be able to do so without paying extra for programming from the other provider.

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