XM Satellite Gets $450 Million... Sorta
from the not-bad dept
If you read Techdirt enough, you'll know I've never been a huge fan of the various satellite radio systems. I just don't think the market is ever going to be big enough to justify the costs. In the end, I still think they'll meet a similar fate to Iridium. Over the summer, when both of the big players in the space announced worse than expected adoption, and the fact that they needed many millions in cash in order to reach breakeven, I thought the end of the satellite radio craze might come quickly. However, despite my prediction that it would never happen, at least one of the two players has done the impossible. XM Satellite Radio has announced that they've raised $450 million which they claim will bring them to profitability. $450? In this market with an unproven technology and not many customers? Who would be insane enough to give them $450 million? That's where the details become more interesting. It's not really $450 million. $250 million of that comes from GM saying that they'll "defer" payments that XM owes them for installing all those XM radios in GM cars. Wait a second... XM is paying GM to put these radios in cars? And they're announcing a big win because GM is deferring those payments? Ok. I stand by my prediction that this company is going nowhere... just not as fast as I had expected.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
