Amy Gilroy

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Ergen, Sirius XM Bankruptcy Rumors Swirl

As we wait to see how Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin will handle the company’s looming debt payments, including one that comes due on Feb. 17, there is no shortage of rumors on his next move.   Reports in today’s New York Times and the New York Post said Sirius may be days away from filing for bankruptcy and is in the process of completing bankruptcy documents through... More

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Ergen’s Gamble On Sirius XM

Acquiring another $125 million or so of Sirius XM debt could give EchoStar chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen enough ownership in Sirius to gain control of the Sirius XM board, according to a Reuters report.   Ergen, over the past several months, has assumed $400 million of Sirius XM’s debt, according to the Wall Street Journal, for the expected purpose of gaining entry into the... More

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Sirius XM, EchoStar and More …

Here are some late Friday thoughts on this week’s news in car electronics.  Sirius XM: You may have heard that Charlie Ergen, CEO of EchoStar, is acquiring Sirius XM debt with an eye for winning control of the satellite-radio company, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Now analysts are starting to put two and two together, noting that former Sirius CEO Joe Clayton... More

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MERA Talks about Cancelled KnowledgeFest ‘09

I was sorry to hear that the annual KnowledgeFest trade gathering was cancelled this year, but I wasn’t that surprised.   The budgets of small auto sound shops are already slimmer than a credit card remote, and fewer retailers are springing for dues for the Mobile Enhancement Retailers Association (MERA) that sponsors the event.  In 2001 MERA had 600 member retailers... More

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Have PNDs Lost Their Way?

It appears that Santa was not kind to portable GPS suppliers, leaving them only flat sales for the fourth quarter, where in 2007 sales to consumers were up 400 percent for the same period.  Garmin recently released a statement acknowledging, “The December sales environment is weaker, which we attribute to our retail customers’ desire to exit the year with lower levels of... More