I wrote about XM and Sirius Satellite radio a couple of months ago (XM vs. Sirius?) - it seemed like both were not doing well and would be better off if they merged.  Well, XM and Sirius announced they want to merge into one company today according to LostRemote:

"…As rumored for quite some time, the two satellite radio companies have announced a $13 billion merger deal. Mel Karmazin, the chief executive of Sirius, would become CEO of the new company, and Gary Parsons, the chairman of XM, would become chairman. The merger is by no means a done deal, as it still has to pass regulatory approval. There’s no proposed name for the combined company yet, and both XM and Sirius subscriptions would be combined. Analysts believe the merger would save $7 billion in annual costs, and you can imagine how much more attractive satellite radio would become with content from both companies. "

I'm not surprised, although I'm not a subscriber of either Satellite network.    I think the main roadblock is the new company (whatever it's called - IE: "XMSirius" or "SiriusXM" or "XSirius - I like XSirius the best) is a de facto monopoly in Satellite Radio.  I wonder how the new "XSirius" will talk their way out of that one?

I mean, people get information from a variety of channels, of which Satellite Radio is one - so I suppose XSirius can say it does not have a monopoly on delivering data and should be allowed to merge.   I wonder if the prices will go up?