Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Howard Stern Sues SiriusXM Over Unpaid Fees

Howard Stern is going after his bosses again, accusing SiriusXM of treating the King of All Media like a peon.

According to a story by Jose Martinez at nydailynews.com, Stern's production company, One Twelve Inc., and his agent, Don Buchwald, Tuesday sued the satellite radio company, charging that it reneged on promised payouts.

The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, says SiriusXM stiffed Stern on performance-based incentives after he delivered millions more subscribers to satellite radio than ever expected.

"Now that Stern has put the company on the map, brought in millions of subscribers and helped it conquer its chief rival, Sirius has unilaterally decided that Stern has been paid enough," the suit says.

The raunchy radio jock and K-Rock star debuted on Sirius in January 2006, taking a reported $500 million deal to help the then-fledgling satellite radio company take on its bigger rival, XM.

As part of the deal, the suit says, Sirius offered One Twelve a series of stock awards if the company surpassed its subscriber goals in any year of his five-year contract by 2 million or more subscribers.

"Sirius set the subscriber targets high with the idea that if Stern delivered, Sirius would more than recoup its investment in Stern," the suit says. "Stern delivered beyond expectations."

Stern star re-signed with SiriusXM for another five years in December.

Read more here.

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