By Steve Garcia -

As previously speculated in past articles, http://www.kingofalltrades.com/author/asm610

Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LCAPA, NASDAQ:LINTA) essentially confirmed they have plans in the works to take their satellite radio interests global this past week.  Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei answered a question after his company’s 4th Quarter Conference Call regarding Worldspace (OTC: WRSPQ) and Liberty’s acquisition efforts aimed at Worldspace assets through Bankruptcy court.  Among his comments was a statement that Worldspace has L-Band spectrum licensing worldwide, and that they were looking for a creative way to monetize Sirius XM Radio,  converting their  shares in the company  is not an option they are likely to pursue at this time.  As a matter of fact, Mr. Maffei said that Board Chairman John Malone would be firmly against that option.

Looking at the broader picture, Liberty Media has an important connection in Europe through Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA, NASDAQ:LBTYB), which has dealt intensively with licensing and programming transmission regulations with many member countries of the European Union (EU).  With Worldspace having L-Band spectrum licensing globally, and both the XM infrastructure side of Sirius XM Radio and Worldspace having come from the same technologies, it’s not a big leap to speculate that the XM side of Sirius XM is a key part of the globalization planning.  Worldspace broadcasts in the 1467-1492 MHz frequency range of the “L” band, and Worldspace’s proprietary and patented technology is coincidentally used in each XM Radio receiver.  In fact, the Worldspace Global Content and Programming department used to provide approximately 10% of the original content music programming heard in America on XM Satellite Radio. (more…)

By Steve Garcia -

After more than a year of high wire balancing, Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) shares which went as low as .05 cents last year, have recovered to the milestone of over one dollar in trading today, a price not seen since September 19 2008. Yet the bashing of the company and the fear mongering continues to roll in. It would behoove all current shareholders as well as possible future shareholders to review the business model and SEC filings of the past 6 months at a minimum, as the basher press is in full swing with feigned fears regarding sentiment as well as possible r/s scenario.

The CEO of Sirius XM Radio Mel Karmazin, is on record over the course of the last few months, as saying that a r/s will only be used to stave off delisting from the NASDAQ Global Market. It appears that organically, through merger synergies and other efficiencies gained since the merger of Sirius and XM in 2008, the combined company’s stock has answered the call and is seeing favorable sentiment among investors as well as many fund managers. The climb over a dollar is sure to increase both retail and institutional interest. At the very least, Sirius XM may be on the radar for being re-instated on the Russell Index this year, as it was removed last June due to its share price. Each year, the Russell Investment Group rebalances its indexes during its annual reconstitution commonly known as the Russell Reconstitution or the Russell Rebalance. The removal event occurred June 26 2009, so there are still several months before Sirius XM has an opportunity to be re instated. (more…)

Liberty Media Seeks Bigger Stake in Live Nation

By Steve Garcia -

With the announced purchase of a larger percentage of Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) by Liberty (NASDAQ: LCAPA, NASDAQ:LINTA) as well as comments from Liberty CEO Greg Maffei regarding the combination of Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Live Nation , it appears that Liberty and Sirius XM are indeed going to enjoy a long and profitable relationship. Maffei did not speak to any known specifics of the future and the relationship, but he did show enthusiasm when speaking to it on CNBC.

Liberty has been very active recently with acquisitions as many of us already know. They should be closing imminently on the purchase of Worldspace (OTCBB: WRSPQ) assets through bankruptcy. The assets are apparently being acquired with some of Liberty’s stake in Sirius XM, more specifically, a percentage of their stake in XM holdings, through their Liberty Satellite LLC holding company.

Liberty Global another of John Malone’s companies (NSDQ: LBTYA, LBTYB) has also been busy getting its acquisition of Unitymedia (from Apollo and BC partners), a German Media and cable conglomerate, finalized, and also shedding its 37.8% position in Japanese cable company Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), for $4bn.

There can be no doubt that Liberty is indeed concentrating on Europe, the Caribbean and South America as areas of expansion outside the United States. The addition of Live Nation only enhances the situation. Live Nation has core business in producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists with a global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 16,000 concerts for 1,500 artists in 57 countries. The company sells over 45 million concert tickets a year. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, additional information about the company can be found at http://www.livenation.com/investors.

With Sirius XM already having Effanel studios since 2005, even more synergies can be gained for all concerned parties between Liberty, Sirius XM and Live Nation. Of course, that is a future story that is yet to even begin. In fact it is only in its early infancy with the Liberty acquisition of a larger percentage of Live Nation not even 24 hours old. Still some healthy speculation based on known information is never a bad thing. Clearly, there is going to be much more value added to all three entities, Liberty, Sirius XM and Live Nation. Those who have the foresight to continue digging for information along that path may end up reaping very ripe and healthy fruit for their labor. The situation bears watching for sure, and I personally will be doing just that. As always, do your own due diligence and best of luck.

Disclosure: Long SIRI

By Steve Garcia

Sirius XM (NSDQ: SIRI) continues to improve their standing as a viable company. The release of the Blackberry application PR from the company is just another tell tale sign that the company is marching forward and looking to the future in many directions: http://investor.sirius.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=443007  The stock has seen a recent increase in daily volume and value despite some recent fear and bearishness from people worrying about a possible reverse split due to listing requirements for NASDAQ. To that end, CEO Mel Karmazin appears to be executing a plan to ensure the company stays listed on the NASDAQ Global Market. Some have even theorized that the company should r/s now to mitigate manipulation due to such a large share count. This would be a bad move in my humble opinion and I believe it is not the intent of Sirius XM or Mel Karmazin to let that happen now. Too many positives have been and continue to be achieved.

As several of us here at King of All Trades have stated of Sirius XM over the last few months, the combined company is presenting and executing a different business model than in previous years as separate companies. They have grown revenue and increased cash flow in one of the most challenging economies of our lifetimes, as well as stemmed the flow of subscriber losses with many consumers having much less discretionary income. The company has also stayed on point with improving costs through merger synergies and with continued improvements quarter over quarter in operating expenses. The fundamentals continue to move forward in positive fashion. Early press for the upcoming conference call is positive….so…try to think about why you invested in this company in the first place. The short term price swings are not important in the big picture; they are merely scenes in a play. You are not supposed to get in on opportunities like this, many try to shake your confidence in hope of getting your shares…and forcing you to buy higher…taking your hard earned profits, so know the risks, formulate a plan if you do not have one already and stick to it. The rest will sort itself out.

Sirius XM has yet to report on Used Car program numbers and their impact to the bottom line subscriber numbers, or the full impact of the new Skydock to retail subscriber numbers. The company continues to assert itself as a force to be reckoned with in Media and Content distribution. Liberty Medias (NSDQ: LCAPA) investment in Sirius XM last February has reaped a lot of fruit to date, and according to Greg Maffei of Liberty, Sirius is on track to continue to improve so much, that it will use up its NOLS far sooner than anticipated. As a side note, LCAPA stock just received an upgrade recently, as did Sirius XMs debt. Companies get debt upgrades when their balance sheets look more favorable.

Disclosure: Long SIRI