[BC] Re: sats merger

[r j carpenter]

I'm pretty well convinced that XM's in house chip design people have a 
dual system chip designed. I wonder if they've gone as far as getting 
silicon. It is barely within the realm of reason that dual-system chips 
are already in some XM radios but configured for XM-only, though I doubt 
it.

In any case, content duplication will have to be the name of the game 
for quite a while to come.  But there would be a substantial saving in 
staff and rent by firing the duplicated staff. Look at the financial 
reports. The cost of the "ordinary" air staff is relatively small for 
both companies. The big names and sports are where the big costs lie.