Liberty Media Near Deal for Major Stake In Sirius XM Radio

According to Wall Street Journal, Liberty Media near a deal for major stake in Sirius XM Radio, deal would save Sirius XM Radio from bankruptcy.

Update 1
John Malone’s Liberty Media is expected to offer about $250m in a senior secured loan on Tuesday as the first step in a “multi-stage” deal to rescue Sirius XM from an imminent debt deadline, a person familiar with the satellite radio group’s discussions said.

The deal offered by Liberty would involve a debt for equity swap and would leave Mr Malone’s group, which controls DirecTV, the top US satellite television company, with a “meaningful” stake in Sirius, this person said.

Update 2
On Monday night, Mr. Karmazin was near a deal to pull off the impossible: he had coaxed Mr. Malone of Liberty Media, which owns DirecTV — and who is a fierce rival of Mr. Ergen’s — to be his white knight and agree to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the company in exchange for several board seats and a minority stake for just under half the company, according to people involved in the negotiations.

As part of the transaction, Mr. Malone is to pay about $265 million now — which will be used to pay off the $175 million that Sirius XM owes Mr. Ergen today — as well as make a second payment of up to about $200 million in the fall to help pay off about another $400 million that Sirius will owe, these people said.


Source - Wall Street Journal, New York Times