The government regulatory debacle known as the Sirius-XM merger has officially ended as the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal after 17 months of deliberation (and lobbying from the National Association of Broadcasters).
According to the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal the FCC approved the deal in a 3-2 vote after Sirius and XM agreed to pay $19.7 million in fines (Techmeme).
The government took more time to approve this deal than the Exxon-Mobil merger and basically every other deal it has thought about. Sirius and XM will have 18 million subscribers combined.
Disclosure: I'm a Sirius subscriber and listen to Howard Stern every morning so I'm not going to pretend to be objective here. But politics held this deal up and frankly it's a government embarrassment. I also never got how Sirius and XM were a monopoly given that they compete (and lose) to Apple's iPod and other music choices. Sure, Sirius and XM have a satellite radio monopoly, but it's still a shack in an upscale audio entertainment neighborhood (Apple has the best house on the block). Zoom out a bit and you see a monopoly that's basically meaningless.
In a statement, the NAB said that the FCC vote "comes as a disappointment."
Now the deal is done the real work begins. Here's what I really want to know: