Analyst says XM / Sirius merger won’t be affected by Congressional letter

Posted in Live (December 14, 2007 at 2:21 am)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

It looks like a recent letter from two members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to Attorney General Michael Mukasey won’t be enough to derail the seemingly inevitable XM / Sirius merger, at least according to one of those ever-present analysts. As OrbitCast reports, Representatives John Conyers and Steve Chabot had complained that Justice Department staff “may be trying to rush through the merger” before the Attorney General himself had time to fully participate, and that “Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Thomas O. Barnett may intend to grant the merger over the objections of department staff.” According to the AP, however, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Blair Levin says that while the final outcome is indeed a “close call,” he believes that “the department will give its blessing,” paving the way for the FCC to give its go-ahead.