Shareholders Sue SiriusXM Over Potential Liberty Takeover
August 22, 2012
Shareholders of SiriusXM have sued the company's directors over the impending majority stock takeover by Liberty Media. The shareholders claim the satcaster's directors have not done enough to protect the company from Liberty's potential takeover, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The suit claims that SiriusXM's directors failed to enact anti-takeover defenses, despite Liberty and its owner John Malone's attempts to add to their share of the company's stock. The suit adds that because Malone and other Liberty executives also serve on SiriusXM's board of directors, they are improperly blocking their fellow board members from "adopting anti-takeover provisions even if doing so would be in the best interests" of the company.
On Friday, Liberty Media asked the FCC in a filing to approve its plan to take control of SiriusXM. Earlier last week, Liberty announced it had bought almost 90 million more shares of the satcaster, and signed an agreement to acquire another 41 million more. These moves will bring its share of SiriusXM to 48 percent.