The Federal Communications Commission has approved Liberty Media’s application for the transfer of de jure control of satellite radio provider SiriusXM to Liberty.
The order was adopted on 3 January after the regulator dismissed both the petition of…
The Federal Communications Commission has approved Liberty Media’s application for the transfer of de jure control of satellite radio provider SiriusXM to Liberty.
The order was adopted on 3 January after the regulator dismissed both the petition of Sirius shareholder Alexander Bergmann, who argued that Liberty needed at least 80% of the voting rights for de jure control, and fears of whether such a deal was not in the public interest.
As part of the application, which was filed on 2 October 2012, Liberty stated that within 60 days of receiving FCC consent it would purchase sufficient additional shares of Sirius’ common stock to own more than 50% of the company.
The media group currently owns approximately 49.5% of Sirius, split between common stock, series B-1 preferred shares and US$11m of 7% convertible notes.
Liberty had originally applied for de facto control of Sirius back in March 2012 but the FCC dismissed the request prompting the group to make series of open market purchases of Sirius stock and then launch the de jure application.
The FCC decision comes a month before Sirius’ CEO Mel Karmazin is due to leave the company. Karmazin is understood to be leaving the company due to the ownership clashes with Liberty.
Liberty was actually first considered as a white knight for Sirius when it rescued it in 2009 from potentially defaulting on debt with a US$530m financing package. This package gave Liberty preferred stock that was convertible into an approximate 40% minority equity stake in the satellite radio firm.
