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Justice Dept. Approves XM/Sirius Merger
Ripit writes "Just yesterday the Justice Department approved the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Radio, a Sirius takeover to the tune of $5 billion. The transaction was approved without conditions, despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry. 'In explaining the decision, Justice officials said the options beyond satellite radio -- digital recordings, high-definition radio, Web radio -- mean that XM and Sirius could merge without diminishing competition. "There are other alternatives out there," Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett said in a conference call. "We just simply found that the evidence didn't indicate that it would harm consumers."'"
ever reported a quarterly profit. The two companies have always lost money. If they don't merge it is likely at least one of them is going to go bankrupt and the other would probably just take over some of their previous customers anyway. I don't see why everyone is bitching, them merging is a good for both them and their customers.
Also I don't know this for sure, but since Sirius would be the buyer here wouldn't they make sure their combined network is compatible with both existing Sirius and XM hardware? Changing that would only piss their customers off, so those of you who already have Sirius or XM shouldn't need to buy new stuff.