LINTB Archive

15

The Dawn of a New Media Era as Defined by Liberty’s John Malone and Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin

By
Rick King
– April 8, 2010
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By Rick King -a_sunrise_over_earth

Every few generations our culture finds new ways to define itself. Usually there is no stronger indicator of culture’s shifting winds than the music a generation listens to. The method in which a generation listens to its music defines it as well. Is it possible we are in the midst of exactly that? Another media revolution of transformation in the winds, from terrestrial radio and television broadcasters to satellite media?

The current population wants access to information everywhere and on demand.  Generation “Unlimited” has no concept of limitation.  They live in a world where information of every type is available at the speed of an electron in more forms than they can count.  Information and how it is channeled to a user permeates every aspect of business.  AM and FM Radio don’t work everywhere geographically so it’s fading.  Same thing for television, initially change came in the form of cable and now with continuing dominance by satellite media.

How many people still remember the world of no television?  Black and White television broadcast?  The days when AM radio was the mainstay of the American living room?  In every single instance of such change, critics denied the very possibility it could happen.  Emotions have always  run especially deep in American society when it comes to our music and how we listen to it.

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31

Worldspace De-Orbit in Lieu of Sale Contingency Plan Approved

By
Andrew Montero
– March 24, 2010
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What is left of Worldspace (OTC BB: WRSPQ) was granted permission(docket #0962 dated 3/24/2010) on March 24th in a Delaware courtroom to either find a suitor for their satellites, or de-orbit them. Liberty Media (NSDQ: LCAPA, LBTYA) attorney representatives were present when the decision was made. Although the satellites are actually owned by Worldspace Satellite Company Limited (SATCO) a non debtor affiliate of Worldspace, the contingency relief sought by Worldspace in the petition filed on March 16th was accepted, in the event they are unable to sell the satellites off.

One way or another, this issue will come to final resolution soon. The long dragged out Bankruptcy has not done any justice to anyone. Especially not all the former listeners of Worldspace, some of whom were stuck when the service went bottoms up with pre paid services they can no longer use to listen to Worldspace and its content which they once enjoyed. Final decisions yet to be made, let’s hope the final chapter and closure to this situation is quickly upon us and not dragged along even more.

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17

Liberty Washes Hands of Cooperative Agreement with Worldspace in its Bankruptcy

By
Andrew Montero
– March 17, 2010
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Liberty Media(NSDQ:LCAPA,LINTA) has decided to wash its hands of any collaboration with Worldspace (OTC BB: WRSPQ) in helping them re organize and come out of Bankruptcy. Court filings from yesterday;

http://www.kccllc.net/Docket/SearchResults.asp

show that once Worldspace submitted their rebuttal to Liberty Media’s plan with some obvious changes to their benefit, Liberty cooled very quickly on the deal, remaining silent and avoiding any sign of agreement to the revised deal. Apparently, the Worldspace staff and attorneys handling the deal didn’t understand that when you deal from a critical position, and are basically on life support, it’s best not to annoy those who are keeping you alive and giving you your last best shot at survival.

Liberty Media still owns over 100 million in claims regarding Worldspace, so there is still the possibility they get what they really wanted out of the Bankruptcy proceedings. Worldspace now faces total liquidation and either sale or de orbiting of their satellites. No further details are available at this time

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17

Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LCAPA, LINTA) and Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI); Partnership or Content Agreement?

By
Andrew Montero
– March 15, 2010
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With the filed petition through the International Bureau of the FCC by Liberty Satellite Radio to take possession of Worldspace’s Afristar 1 and 2 satellites, it appears the end to the bankruptcy proceedings regarding Worldspace will be upon us fairly soon. Liberty Satellite Radio is the actual filer with agreement from Worldspace of the petition. As discussed previously in earlier articles, Liberty Satellite Radio is a holding company for Liberty Media.

The next big question is will Sirius XM be a partner or a content provider to Liberty? If it were all about fair and equal, one would expect Sirius XM to become a 40% partner in any new venture from Liberty, since they received 40% of Sirius XM for essentially a short term bridge loan. That loan was paid back to Liberty in very short order, and had many shareholders up in arms, for some pretty fair reasons. However that is ancient history, and we know that business can sometimes be ruthless in its conduct.

It is more than reasonable to speculate that Liberty is planning on starting up a satellite radio service with global implications and exclusive content. Part of that content will be native language programming for any countries that grant permission for Liberty to broadcast. Undoubtedly another large part of the situation will involve music, which certainly Sirius XM could provide. But Sirius XM can provide much more, like OEM relationships, and other exclusive content. Additionally, there is the technology and licensing on the XM side, which was granted by Worldspace several years ago to XM, and whatever improvements have been made upon it. Looking at it from the outside as an investor, I would hope that Liberty would enter into a partnership with Sirius XM. This would enable both companies to realize even greater leverage and cost reductions across their respective infrastructures with regard to satellite radio.

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2

Sirius XM Radio and Liberty Media Form a Cozy Relationship (NASDAQ:SIRI, NASDAQ:LCAPA)

By
Andrew Montero
– February 13, 2010
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Liberty Media Seeks Bigger Stake in Live Nation

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

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