karo clevie: Sirius asks FCC to block control by Liberty

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sirius asks FCC to block control by Liberty | Odd Onion

By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) ? Satellite radio giant Sirius XM Radio Inc. is petitioning the nation?s communications regulator to block a move by Liberty Media Corp. to gain control of the broadcaster, according to a media report Saturday.

Sirius XM Radio

/quotes/zigman/111667/quotes/nls/siri SIRI
+4.52%

? said in a Federal Communications Commission filing on Friday that Liberty Media

/quotes/zigman/6758691/quotes/nls/lmca LMCA
+1.45%

?

/quotes/zigman/6758706/quotes/nls/lmcb LMCB
+1.52%

?has asked the agency to take ?de facto? control of Sirius XM, according to the report. In the filing, Sirius asked the FCC to deny the Liberty application, according to the report cited by The Wall Street Journal.

Liberty has preferred stock convertible into 40% of Sirius shares, the report said.

According to the Journal, Liberty received its Sirius XM stake as part of a transaction to lend Sirius ?several hundred million dollars? in early 2009. At the time, Liberty said in an FCC filing, agency employees informally asked Liberty whether it had acquired ?de facto? control of the broadcaster. At the time, Liberty said it hadn?t acquired ?de facto? control and had no intention of doing so, according to the report.

The Journal noted that previous restrictions expired on March 6 and Liberty said in a filing that it was now seeking approval for transfer of de facto control.

Sirius XM and Liberty media contacts did not return requests for comment.