XM and Sirius have announced that the two satcasters have received a request from the U.S. Department of Justice for further information about their potential merger. A "Second Request" from the DOJ is issued when its initial review brings up any potential antitrust issues.

Bear Sterns analyst Bob Peck wrote that such a request from the DOJ is rarely used, while analyst David Bank of RBC Capital Markets told Reuters, "It doesn't surprise me at all. I didn't think anything was going to sail through on this merger. I would expect it to be as complicated as it can be."

XM and Sirius have said they "intend to respond expeditiously to the Second Request."

Meanwhile, the NAB has sent a pair of documents to members of Congress, both featuring arguments against the merger. The first was an eight-page report from Phillip Napoli of Fordham University, which claimed that the satcaster merger would "lead to conditions of both monopoly and monopsony that our antitrust laws are intended to prevent. The public interest remains better served by the preservation of competing service providers seeking to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible price."

The second offering was a letter from ex-Federal Trade Commission Chairman James C. Miller, who wrote, "This is a two-down-to-one merger. There are no other providers in the market. Accordingly, I conclude that the merger of XM and Sirius would be contrary to the public interest."

Both documents can be found on the NAB's Web site.