[BC] XM Radio stock action

[Gil & Judy Gillivan]

For what it's worth - this was in the closing comments for The Wall Street
Journal on-line tonight.

 

XM Falls From Orbit
Shares of XM Satellite Radio tumbled 5% amid a flurry of bad news. The
biggest U.S. satellite
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB114009217290875791,00.html?mod=djemTEW>
radio company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $270.4 million, 42% worse
than a year ago, though revenue doubled to $177.1 million. The sales beat
analysts' expectations, but the loss was worse than expected. Perhaps more
troubling was the company's announcement that director Pierce Roberts had
stepped down and issued a red-alert warning about the company's future.
"Given current course and speed there is, in my view, a significant chance
of a crisis on the horizon," he wrote in a letter to Chairman Gary Parsons.
"Even absent a crisis, I believe that XM will inevitably serve its
shareholders poorly without major changes now." The company, which like its
smaller rival Sirius has been spending money hand over fist to generate
subscribers, disagreed with Mr. Roberts, who has long wanted XM to focus
more on profitability than adding subscribers. XM said its subscriber base
grew 84% last year to 5.9 million.

Gil Gillivan

(The Big G at KAFE in a past life.)