Wireless Tech Chat

From Engadget: We guess those bailout talks with DirecTV weren’t so futile after all, huh? The satcaster’s parent company, Liberty Media, has just stepped in to rescue Sirius XM from the clutches of bankruptcy, providing a $530 million life raft that it will use to pay off looming debt payments and keep operations humming. Liberty will write a $280 million check immediately, of which $171 million will go straight to debtors. Another round of funding (to the tune of $250 million) will be available to Sirius XM in order to “help it pay its debts and ward off a potential takeover of Sirius by Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network.” In return for this mighty appreciated favor, Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in Sirius XM, which it can convert into common stock should it so choose. Also of note, founder John Malone and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei are likely to join Sirius XM’s board of directors.

Previously:

Safe to say that satellite radio is far down the list of priorities for Uncle Sam’s bailout bucks, so Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin pounded some pavement today, hitting up DirecTV and its parent company Liberty Media to try and save his bankrupted radio hydra. Apparently Smelly Melly isn’t as hot for EchoStar owner Charles Ergan to buy Sirius XM out as was previously rumored, but there’s a showdown brewing: Ergan’s been busy taking control of Sirius XM’s debt, so any deal with Liberty / DirecTV would result in feuding ownership interests. Making things even more interesting, it sounds like Ergan and Karmazin don’t really get along, so this deal with DirecTV is basically his last shot at keeping his job.