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Liberty Media Rescues Sirius XM from Bankruptcy

by Darren Murph on February 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM


We guess those bailout talks with DirecTV weren't so futile after all, huh? The satcaster's parent company, Liberty Media, has just stepped in to rescue Sirius XM from the clutches of bankruptcy, providing a $530 million life raft that it will use to pay off looming debt payments and keep operations humming. Liberty will write a $280 million check immediately, of which $171 million will go straight to debtors. Another round of funding (to the tune of $250 million) will be available to Sirius XM in order to "help it pay its debts and ward off a potential takeover of Sirius by Charlie Ergen's DISH Network."

In return for this mighty appreciated favor, Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in Sirius XM, which it can convert into common stock should it so choose. Also of note, founder John Malone and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei are likely to join Sirius XM's board of directors. Is that a collective sign of relief we just heard, or what? [Via Denver Business Journal, thanks Michael]

Tags: Bankrupt, Bankruptcy, breaking news, BreakingNews, business, liberty media, LibertyMedia, sat, sat radio, satellite radio, SatelliteRadio, SatRadio, sirius, sirius xm, SiriusXm, xm, xm radio, XmRadio

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