Sirius Lowers Subscriber Guidance
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. announced that it would cut year-end 2006 subscriber guidance to between 5.9 and 6.1 million. Sirius shares closed lower by 7.67%. This year’s retail sales results will be hurt by lackluster holiday sales.
This bad news for Sirius is also bad news for RadioShack Corp. According to DowJones, BMO Capital Markets believes that RadioShack has “significant exposure to Sirius at an estimated 5-10% of revenues and one of the only categories that was growing this year for the company.” BMO concludes that the Sirius subscriber cut could put a drag on RadioShack fourth quarter sales and put in jeopardy BMO’s 2007 full year earnings outlook.
In 2004, RadioShack agreed with Sirius to begin selling and marketing satellite radio in which Sirius would pay RadioShack based on how many new subscribers the company signs up in its 7,000 stores nationwide.