This Week in Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI): Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Pandora Media Inc. (P)

But again, the problem is the very limited number of Windows Phone users out there.

Liberty Media gets hungry
As investors wonder what Liberty Media will do with Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) now that it owns a controlling stake in the satellite-radio star, John Malone’s media conglomerate is getting bigger. The company struck a deal this week to buy a roughly 27% stake in Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) for a little more than $2.6 billion.

Charter is the country’s fourth largest cable provider, but it’s a bit of a mess. Like most traditional cable companies, Charter is dealing with cord-cutters. Video customers fell below 4 million last year, inching down 4%. Revenue is growing marginally, but mostly as Charter jacks up its subscription rates and talks its customers into bundling their TV with telephone service and Internet connectivity. Charter is also still not profitable since emerging from bankruptcy, though Wall Street sees the cable provider turning that corner by next year.

Liberty Media naturally made a much better deal when it acquired 40% of Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) four years ago for free. Well, not exactly free. Liberty Media did have to lend some money to Sirius XM at a stiff 15% interest rate. However, now that Sirius XM is healthy and growing its top and bottom lines, it remains to be seen what Liberty Media will do now that it owns a little more than 50% of Sirius XM.

Speculation that Liberty Media may buy out the rest of Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) has never been a popular theory, but now it will seem less likely if Liberty Media is saving up to own more of Charter.

Sirius XM has had an interesting week without making any news itself.

The article This Week in Sirius XM Radio originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Liberty Media. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft.

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