SiriusXM reports record revenues
October 25, 2018
By Chris Forrester
North American pay radio operator SiriusXM is on a roll. It added 298,000 net new subscribers during Q3, and reported a record $1.5 billion in revenues (up 6 per cent), and EBITDA of $589 million (up 7 per cent).
SiriusXM finished the quarter with 33.7 million subcribers (representing annual and pre-paid customers). ARPU was $14.48.
Within the quarterly call, the proposed acquisition of streaming service Pandora was touched upon. The “go shop” period allowing Pandora to seek alternative buyers/offers expired on October 24th. This indicates that there are no other offers for Pandora that are being considered. Sirius XM indicates that it thus expects its acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2019.
If everything goes through, the combination of SiriusXM and Pandora will result in the world’s largest audio entertainment company will be created.
For the 2018 year SiriusXM says it expects revenues of $5.725 billion. To date the broadcaster has spent $334 million to buy back some 48 million of its own shares.