Sirius XM said revenue rose 12 percent, $897 million, from the period a year earlier, but was lower than the $906 million analysts had predicted.
Net income increased 15 percent to $124 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization — adjusted to eliminate some charges including the effect of the 2008 merger between Sirius and XM — were $262 million, up 26 percent from a year earlier.
Sirius XM earned 2 cents a share, one cent less than analysts had predicted.
The company’s subscriber growth continued to be a bright spot, even after a rare price increase last year. It was the first time Sirius had raised the subscription rate; XM had done it once before. Sirius XM gained 453,000 subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 24.4 million. In the last two years its subscriber ranks have grown 19 percent.
“Sirius XM’s first-quarter results show a continuation of our trend of strong, profitable growth,” Mr. Meyer said in a statement.
One concern for investors, however, is an increase in “churn” rate, a measurement of subscriber turnover. In recent years, that number had been gradually reduced to 1.9 percent, but in the most recent quarter it was 2 percent.
Mr. Meyer, who had been Sirius’s president for sales and operations since 2004, was named interim chief executive in December after the departure of Mel Karmazin. He was appointed to the post permanently in a separate announcement on Tuesday by Gregory B. Maffei, who became chairman on April 10.
Mr. Maffei is the president and chief executive of Liberty Media, which since 2009 had been Sirius XM’s largest investor and took over the company, which is based in New York, last year by acquiring a majority of its shares.
Sirius XM shares rose 18 cents, or 5.9 percent, to close at $3.25 on Tuesday.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/media/sirius-xm-reports-income-and-subscriber-growth.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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