This Week in Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI)

Legal counsel for the music-discovery website believes that snapping up the FM station will help it qualify for the lower royalties that 16 of the 20 largest Internet radio companies pay. Songwriter royalty collector BMI immediately moved to sue Pandora to block the move, but it will be interesting to see if this move brings to light the great inequity that has different companies paying different rates per song streamed online.

Short people
Bears continued their slow retreat out of Sirius XM. There were 368.8 million shares of Sirius XM held short at the end of May, well off the February peak of 414 million.

The trend has gone in Sirius XM’s favor, with shorting activity declining for five of the six bi-monthly reporting periods since late February’s peak, but it will be interesting to see whether the weak trading in June and Apple’s new iTunes Radio announcement woo back the naysayers.

A Sirius future
It was an interesting week for Sirius XM. The new week isn’t likely to be dull.

The article This Week in Sirius XM Radio originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Rick Munarriz.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple.

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