All that news about Howard Stern possibly leaving Sirius XM hasn’t been applauded.
Investors in Sirius stock send the price off a cliff yesterday morning, and the spiral continues downward.
Sirius stock was already problematic at the end of the day on Tuesday. But yesterday morning at $21.86. Today it closed at $21.26. This is around where it was in May before a run up that looked promising.
But unconfirmed news that Stern was being eased out of the company for which he’s been the standard bearer for 20 years killed off the good times. The Daily Mail started the ball rolling, kicked it to the UK Sun, and then it kept rolling. No one checked the story or got a named quote, just anonymous sources.
All of this has Trump’s fingerprints on it. Even though Liberty Media’s John Malone is a Trump friend, he’s also a smart business man. He and Warren Buffet, the main financial players at Sirius, know that Stern is their mascot. Other personalities and podcasters are nice, but Stern is the guy who can bring in any important interview and get attention.
If Sirius thinks they can survive with just all of us listening to cool music, it’s not going to work, I’m afraid. Sirius = Stern.
