Sirius Slips as Loss Expands

Sirius (SIRI) shares dipped Friday after the satellite radio broadcaster posted a wider fourth-quarter loss.

The New York pay-radio shop, which launched service in July, hit its expected subscriber number with 29,947 users at the end of the year. The company expects a tenfold increase in subscribers by year-end.

But Sirius' financial ills continue. Sirius posted a fourth-quarter loss of $134 million, or $1.74 per share, on sales of $685,000. During the same quarter last year, Sirius had a loss of $84 million, or $1.52 per share, on no revenue.

One of the more active stocks on the Nasdaq this week as traders and momentum players pile in and out of the shares, Sirius was down 2 cents, or 3%, to 67 cents in early trading Friday. After a 15% gain Thursday, shares of rival XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) fell 22 cents, or 3%, to $6.55 in Friday morning trading.

Sirius has been trading below a dollar recently as the company worked through a $1.2 billion recapitalization on March 7. The refinancing eliminated 90% of its debt and all of its convertible preferred stock obligations. The company also raised $200 million in cash from a new stock offering.

The nation's other satellite radio company, XM, posted a 70% sequential jump in subscribers for the year's final quarter and forecast 37% expansion in the first quarter of 2003. XM's revenue surged 64% from third-quarter levels, to $9 million.

Both companies charge users a monthly fee to receive more than 100 channels of satellite radio programming.

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