"After the merger, customers may elect to receive fewer channels at a monthly price lower than $12.95; substantially similar programming at the existing $12.95 price; or more channels ... at a modest premium to the cost of one service, and considerably less than the cost of subscribing to both services."

When challenged about pricing, Karmazin made a promise to the suits in the Senate:

Those antitrust hearings are still going on, where Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl called out the Sirius CEO, saying the merger would result in "a fabulous monopoly" and "a real bad deal for consumers."

Karmazin tried to put out that fire by assuring the senator and his colleagues that the combined company's not going to raise prices. Sure, he says that now. Just like the kid says to daddy when he's begging for the Corvette keys, "I promise not to speed, really." – Charlie White

Sirius, XM to offer reduced price plan after deal [Reuters, via Yahoo News]

Verizon to Become Largest National Carrier by Swallowing Alltel [MobileMag]

The big news is that neither service will be shut down; you're not going to subscribe to a combined XMSIRIUS any time soon. They went out of their way to say that, for example, if you want to listen to both Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony, the two biggest "gets" for satellite radio, you'll need to subscribe to both services.

For more edge-of-your-seat developments, hit the ol' jump.

Truth be told, this conference was more of a "calm down, investors, we got this." Still, they did reveal a few tidbits of information that you'll appreciate hearing. Or reading, whatever.

•The company is "interested" in raising prices. Wonderful!

•Regarding the regulatory hurdles, the new company will try to argue that satellite radio competes against terrestrial (read: "regular") radio, HD radio, and Internet radio, and that DAPs like the iPod have changed the rules of the game. Too bad terrestrial radio is riddled with intelligence-insulting commercials and horrifying contests, HD radio is nigh irrelevant, and Internet radio has been all but legislated out of existence.

•Consumers are the big winners! Yay, we're winners! Allegedly, we'll get more "choice" (from one company) and a greater range of programming (from one company). Though it looks like we'll be able to choose channels on an à la carte basis. That's nice.

•This merger is nothing at all like the proposed merger between DirecTV and Dish Network since those companies were only competing against pay services (cable TV) whereas satellite radio is competing against free radio. I guess this means that my over-the-air HDTV antenna isn't real. Who knew?

•Until the merger happens, both companies will operate as they do today.

Those are some of the bigger points. I'm a little surprised that they didn't mention how this is just a ploy to compel the government to bail them both out. You see, since both companies still haven't turned a profit, they decided to merge in order to cut costs. To merge requires governmental approval. In other words, "please let us merge otherwise our businesses will fail and we'll lose money and we'll be sad."

We'll seen by the end of the year whether or not this actually happens. Fingers crossed! (Yes, I know the picture is upside down. It's for editorial effect. Thank you.) – Nicholas Deleon

Live Blogging the Sirius + XM Merger Conference Call [Orbitcast.com]

Merger Merger Merger [ABCNews]

Why should we even give a damn?

Well, it's entirely too early to tell, especially since this rumor is just that, a rumor. But XM hasn't come out with new hardware for a while now (I asked Samsung at CES if we could expect a new portable player, and was told that the RIAA lawsuit really hurt XM's chances of coming out with another portable anytime soon) and Sirius' hardware generally sucks. Maybe if they merge they can fight off lawsuits and design something that's not the size of a Cadillac. – Nicholas Deleon

Heavenly Deal:
Sirius, XM Set To Confirm Merger Plan Today [New York Post via Orbitcast.com]