The Federal Communications Commission has issued a notice asking for members of the public to voice their opinions on whether Sirius and XM, USA"s two satellite radio broadcasters, should be allowed to merge. The combined assets of the two media players were valued at approximately $4.7 million when the deal was first announced last February. The FCC now has less than 180 days to decide whether to approve the proposed merger, placing the deadline sometime in December of this year.
The Department of Justice must also add its approval for the deal to proceed; the DOJ is charged with assessing whether the merger would result in an illegal monopoly. The two original satellite broadcast licenses granted to XM and Sirius by the FCC 10 years ago expressly stipulated that no single licensee would be "permitted to acquire control" of both licenses. The deadline for interested parties to file comments, or petitions to deny the merger, is July 9, 2007.