FCC Reaches Tentative Deal To Approve XM-Sirius Merger (more misleading news?)

[Kire]

Source: Wall Street Journal

FCC Reaches Tentative Deal
To Approve XM-Sirius Merger
By AMY SCHATZ
July 23, 2008 7:09 p.m.

WASHINGTON – A tentative deal has been reached by a majority of commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission to approve the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., a FCC source close to the review said Wednesday.

Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate is the only FCC member left to vote on the deal and she is expected to do so shortly, two FCC officials close to the negotiations said. She is expected to sign off on the deal in exchange for a consent decree that resolves several enforcement issues involving the satellite radio companies and a combined fine of about $20 million, an FCC source close to the deal said.

Ms. Tate has also asked for a variety of other minor conditions, an FCC source said. An adviser to Ms. Tate did not respond to a call for comment. Exact details about the deal are not known since FCC officials and lawyers for the companies appear to still be working them out.

Ms. Tate's vote would finally end the agency's 13-month review of the deal. Her vote is critical for the deal's approval since the rest of the five-member board remained evenly split on the deal.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121683130281477651.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

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evenly split?

Is it a deal or not?

I guess you can say anything you want in a headline if the word "tentative" is in it.

13 months is a very long time



see previous post from the other day
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x12765

or just go to my journal

[Kire]

1. bloomberg

The FCC is the last regulatory obstacle to the all-stock combination. Two Republican commissioners, Chairman Kevin Martin and Robert McDowell, have already backed the merger. Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, who voted against it today, said in an e- mailed statement the combination would create ``a monopoly with window dressing.'' Fellow Democrat Michael Copps also voted no.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aB.c5YGeRjnk&refer=home

[merwin]

2. Doesn't matter to me if they merge.

They're almost exactly the same anyways. Might as well merge.

[soothsayer]

3. Just let them merge already so I can get baseball to go with my footballl.