Home › DMW Daily › May 21, 2009

Time Names Sirius XM to "10 Biggest Tech Failures" List

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 21, 2009 - 8:58am.
Washington - Time magazine has labeled satellite radio provider Sirius XM (NASD: SIRI) as one of the "10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade," alongside HD DVD, Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) Vista and the Segway. The list, compiled by 24/7 Wall St., includes products and companies that "clearly miss the mark of living up to the potential that its creators expected."

The magazine detailed how both DC-based XM and New York-based Sirius took on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to build their services, which announced plans to merge in 2007.

By the time the FCC approved their deal 13 months later, the magazine said, "subscriber growth had slowed, most likely because of new and more popular consumer electronics devices like the Apple iPod and multimedia cellular handsets."

The company's stock reached a low of $0.05 earlier this year, and its subscriber base fell by 400,000 in the first quarter.

"Neither Sirius nor XM ever made a dime," the magazine said.

Poll: Does Sirius XM Belong on the 10 Biggest Tech Failures List?

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ii8rt (XM write-up)

http://snipurl.com/ii8ta (complete list)

Published in DMW Daily, May 21, 2009
tags: Radio | Music | HD DVD | Time | Sirius XM |



Comments

Your wrong about Sirius

Submitted by Ervin Raab (not verified) on May 21, 2009 - 9:58am.
Like lamenting about Amazon...Sirius XM most absolutely makes $$$...I know, since after buying there stock and making it!

As a result of this article,

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on May 21, 2009 - 1:00pm.
As a result of this article, I will cancel my time subscription. Long live Sirius XM.

Is Sirius Xm a failure?

Submitted by Neal Barkett (not verified) on May 22, 2009 - 12:58am.
At this point & time it's easy to pile on this company. Yes the merger took the wind out of their sails, but where do you lay the blame? I think the FCC & DOJ have to take that one on the chin. Then if you look at the timeline, the next roadblock came right after the long process of the merger and that was the tanking of the economy and car sales. Does this mean this tech is a failure? No I don't think so by any means, they have ridden out the perfect storm. For the stock to go from .05 per share to about .35 shows there are a lot of believers in this company. I do put some of the blame on Sirius Xm. They have so far fallen short on marketing to the younger crowd and need to get their I-Phone application out as soon as possible! They in the long run will survive and once they get traction when the economy rebounds they will be THE dominant player in providing digital audio entertainment & information bar none.

Sirius/XM Dominant?

Submitted by Michael Vandeven (not verified) on May 25, 2009 - 8:46pm.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with the notion that Sirius/XM will dominate as we move into the future. Unexpected and undeserved price hikes, commercials where none ought be, failure to challenge (largely free) smartphone media head-on, clunky equipment, shady business practices, and exorbitant amounts of debt all spell trouble for this now fledgling company. The notion that subscribers now have to pay a monthly fee to listen online is nearly criminal as I see it. It is 2009. People have SO MANY options in terms of where to hear content, 90% of which is free. This is a company run by terrestrial radio suits who do not understand where tomorrow's media is going. Satellite radio is a modern and potentially dominating force to be reckoned with. However, their potential domination will remain just that; potential. Never kinetic. I don't bash them because they lost an astonishing 400,000 subscribers in Q1. That otherwise stunning loss is merely symptomatic of the problems I've mentioned. I'm certain there are other problems I've failed to shine light on here. Those of you who choose to cheerlead for this company, please make sure it's because of an honest appraisal of the circumstances surrounding them and not a desire to talk up the price of your Sirius/XM shares.

Sirius

Submitted by Ervin Raab (not verified) on June 17, 2009 - 11:56am.
Finally, Sirius Radio is coming to IPOD...YEAH!! Ervin Raab

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