spacetoday.net: Sirius achieves cash flow breakeven

Posted: Wed, Jan 3, 2007, 6:52 AM ET (1152 GMT)
Sirius Satellite Radio announced Tuesday that the company has had its first fiscal quarter with positive cash flow since the company's founding, a major milestone for the company and the satellite radio industry. Sirius offered no specific financial figures in its announcement, saying only that "preliminary financial data" indicated that the company had positive cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2006. The company ended the quarter with just over 6 million subscribers, up from 3.3 million subscribers at the end of 2005. The company previously said that it expected to reach cash flow breakeven by the end of 2006. XM Satellite Radio, the other satellite radio company serving the US, had also previously announced it would reach cash flow breakeven by the end of 2006, but company officials said it would make no announcements about subscriber figures and finances prior to its quarterly financial releases. Speculation has grown that the two companies could merge to reduce their costs and better compete against terrestrial radio and Internet alternatives.