Liberty's Maffei: SiriusXM Takeover Could Take 18 Months

October 11, 2012

Speaking to investors yesterday, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said the company's takeover of SiriusXM could take up to 18 months to complete. Multichannel News reports that Maffei said any future transactions with the satcaster would depend on Liberty's ability to monetize high cost shares, but that could take up to a year and half to fully complete.

Liberty Media currently controls approximately 49.6 percent to SiriusXM stock and has made its intentions clear that it wants complete control over the satcaster. Liberty is expected touse a Wall Street maneuver known asReverse Morris Trust to acquire, then spin, off SiriusXM.

"We would want to get our capital out before we do a Reverse Morris Trust," Maffei said on Wednesday, adding that it is not the only possible option for Liberty Media. "If it takes 18 months, that would be sort of a minimum."

Yesterday, SiriusXM reported net subscriber additions were 445,921 in thethirdquarter of2012. SiriusXM ended Q3 on September 30with a record 23,365,383 subscribers.Additionally, the company announced that it is raising its net subscriber additions guidance to 1.8 million for 2012 from its previous guidance of 1.6 million.

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Liberty's Maffei: SiriusXM Takeover Could Take 18 Months