On Feb. 20, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services placed all its ratings on New York City-based Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., including the 'CCC' corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with positive implications, following the company's definitive agreement to an all-stock "merger of equals" with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (CCC+/Watch Developing/--). Under the terms of the agreement, Sirius shareholders will own 50% of the combined company and XM shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius common stock for each share of XM they own. As of Sept. 30, 2006, the company had approximately $1.08 billion in outstanding debt. If the transaction is completed as proposed, without the incurrence of additional debt, we would likely raise the ratings as a result
