spacetoday.net: Sirius reports bigger loss in 2002

Posted: Sat, Mar 29, 2003, 7:19 PM ET (0019 GMT)
Satellite radio company Sirius reported Friday that the company had deep losses in 2002 and would likely need additional funding in order to reach breakeven. The company reported a loss of $134.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2002 on $0.7 million of revenue, compared to a loss of $83.6 million for the same quarter in 2001. For all of 2002, Sirius had a loss of $468.5 million on total revenue of $0.8 million, compared to a loss of $278 million in 2001. The company said that it has just under 30,000 subscribers at the end of 2002, six months after it launched it satellite radio service nationwide; its competitor, XM Satellite Radio, had over ten times as many subscribers at that time. Earlier in March Sirius completed a restructuring plan that converted much of its debt into stock and also raised $200 million in cash, enough to keep the company operating into the second quarter of 2004. Unlike XM, which said this week that it has enough cash on had to continue operations through cash-flow breakeven, Sirius said it will likely have to raise an additional $100 million to fund operations though breakeven. Sirius stock closed Friday at $0.67/share, down two cents. Trading in the stock had been heavy all week due to speculation about a possible takeover from an unknown company, according to CBS MarketWatch.