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Technology Stocks : Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Esoteric1 who wrote (1049)	11/12/2004 7:43:19 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 8420

Today's WSJ is reporting that Viacom has dropped its financial support for Stern's lawsuit against Clear Channel. SIRI is up a bit in premarket trading. us.rd.yahoo.comhttp://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110022565839272316,00.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo Shock Jock Stern Seeks Early Exit From Viacom Deal* By SARAH MCBRIDE and JOE FLINT Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 12, 2004; Page B6 It is beginning to look like shock jock Howard Stern's transition from broadcast radio to an upstart satellite service will be anything but smooth, prompting Mr. Stern to explore whether he can make the leap earlier than expected. With a little more than a year until Mr. Stern jumps to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. from Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting, the popular radio host has gone on the warpath against his current employer. The issue is that Viacom has withdrawn its financial support from Mr. Stern's legal fight against Clear Channel Communication Inc., which dropped his show earlier this year after the Federal Communications Commission began a crackdown on indecent broadcasts. The about-face has infuriated Mr. Stern, who has lambasted Infinity management on the air during his past few shows, but without mentioning the legal issue at the root of the squabble. People close to Infinity say that because Mr. Stern was secretly negotiating with Sirius while enlisting the support of Infinity's legal team in a suit against Clear Channel, Infinity no longer feels compelled to back him. Spokesmen for Infinity and Sirius declined to comment; Mr. Stern's agent couldn't be reached. EVERYBODY'S TALKING Mr. Stern is negotiating to get out of his contract with Infinity so he can join Sirius earlier than the 2006 date currently planned. Mr. Stern announced his planned move to Sirius last month, live on his show. Sirius likely would have to pay a steep price to land Mr. Stern early; he brings in some $80 million annually in advertising revenue and $50 million annually in cash flow to Infinity, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Stern's rants have led some close to the situation to believe that he is trying to goad Infinity into taking him off the air, which the company doesn't want to do unless Sirius ponies up to buy out his contract. At the end of June, Infinity and Mr. Stern filed a $10 million breach-of-contract suit against Clear Channel for dropping Mr. Stern's show earlier in the year. In July, Clear Channel countersued for $3 million, alleging Mr. Stern broke his contract with the company by not conforming to federal decency standards. Write to Sarah McBride at sarah.mcbride@wsj.com and Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

To: Esoteric1 who wrote (1049)	11/12/2004 9:17:19 AM
From: Esoteric1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8420

Smith Barney starts SIRI at Hold ($7 tgt), but sees SIRI a better value than Hold-rated XMSR. zacks.com 07:06 SIRI Sirius Satellite started with Sector Outperform and XMSR with Sector Performer at CIBC (3.85 ) -- Update -- CIBC initiates Satellite Radio Sector with a Sector Outperform on SIRI and a Sector Perform on XMSR. Firm views satellite radio as one of the few growth stories among subscriber/service businesses and sees for subscribers to grow to 37 mln in 2013 from 4 mln estimated in 2004, with the industry's valuation increasing to $30 bln in 2013 from $16 bln today. Firm believes SIRI is undervalued on 2006 ests. They also believe current sub estimates favor co over XMSR, as there is still upside in the retail channel for co based on another product release in FY05 and greater emphasis from Chrysler. SIRI price tgt is $6.50. For XMSR they believe that the stock fully discounts their projections of 2005 and 2006 subscriber count. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (This is via Briefing.com, Platinum Service. Gotta pay for it to access it and there's no link, since it's Live In Play.)