LIBERTY CEO said SIRIUS has hit bottom poised for rebound
By Nat Worden
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media Corp., said Friday that Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) has hit bottom and is poised for a rebound.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find a media company out there that is growing at the rate [Sirius] is growing," Maffei said on a conference call with analysts following Liberty's second-quarter earnings release.
Liberty lent Sirius $530 million for a 40% stake in February as satellite radio company run by Mel Karmazin was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Sirius has suffered under the weight of a heavy debt load left over from the merger between Sirius and XM, which closed last fall.
Sirius reported Thursday that its second-quarter loss widened as the satellite-radio company reported $132 million in charges, while its subscriber count slipped and churn rose slightly in a sign of economic weakness, particularly in the auto business where the company gains the majority of its new subscribers.
Its revenue more than doubled to $590.8 million, but factoring out the effects of the merger, the company's revenue grew 1.1%.
On a show of confidence, Sirius boosted its outlook to $400 million in adjusted income from operations this year, up from a May forecast of $350 million.
"We're convinced [the company has hit bottom]," Maffei said. "The [second-quarter] results seem to demonstrate that."
He said that while bankruptcy seemed like a possibility for Sirius in February, such talk is now a distant memory for the company.
"We're talking now about how much this equity is worth," Maffei said. "I think this is a great business."
-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; (212) 416-2472; nat.worden@dowjones.com
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