Filed under: Earnings reports, Deals, XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Short stories, Stock screen
The short interest in Sirius (NASDAQ: SIRI) spiked up between November 15 and November 30 by 14.4 million to 113.4 million.
Sirius shares have been down over the last few days, and perhaps the market thinks they’ll go lower.
Many analysts expected that the Sirius merger with XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) would be approved by now. No such luck. The longer the approval drags on, the better the chance that it will get derailed by ranting congressmen of the Justice Department.
Then, there’s the issue of the Sirius balance sheet. The company has long-term debt of about $1.3 billion and no way to repay it. With bad credit markets, it may not even be able to be refinanced. The company had an operating loss of $106 million last quarter on $242 million in revenue. And subscriber counts are not doubling year-over-year like they used to.
Sirius is in trouble. The market knows it. And it needs that merger and the savings it should bring to stay afloat.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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