Liberty Finally Takes Charge of Sirius XM

After months of deliberating with the Federal Communications Commission, Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ:LMCAD) has completed its bid for a majority stake in Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI). The media company, which recently spun off its TV and movie business Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA) into an independent entity, purchased 50 million shares of Sirius at $3.15 a piece, bringing its total stake to 50.7 percent.

Long time coming

Liberty’s chairman John Malone has been gunning for a majority interest in Sirius for a while. Liberty acquired a 40 percent stake in Sirius in 2009 after lending the radio company $530 million to avoid bankruptcy. Since then, shares have come up from a low of nearly $0.10 to above $3.00. The company has grown its revenues and earnings every year since, ending 2012 with 23.9 million subscribers and up to 70 percent of the market for in-car radios in the United States.

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But Malone hasn’t been satisfied with the progress. He believes that former Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin, who left in December, wasn’t expanding aggressively or adapting to new technology quickly enough. In a market that has grown increasingly competitive over the past few years, this was apparently inexcusable.