Karmazin: No Satellite Merger

Mel Karmazin says he’s not talking to XM about a merger. According to Forbes.com, the CEO of Sirius Satellite said he has not met with executives of the rival satellite company. He made the comments in a conference call after Sirius reported a wider fourth-quarter loss.
“I have no idea where any of this came from,” he was quoted saying in response to a New York Post story about reported early merger discussions.
Forbes said Karmazin “also tried to tone down speculation that the company has been in talks with Viacom about buying out the remainder of shock-jock Howard Stern’s contract so he can start at Sirius before January 2006,” although he said Sirius would like to do so.
As Radio World reported from CES, Karmazin clarified then that there are no talks between Sirius, Infinity and Stern.
Karmazin said Sirius will rely more heavily on ad revenue, according to the account.