What's Going On With Liberty Media and SiriusXM?

The rumor mill surrounding the departure of Jim Meyer, CEO at pay-radio operator SiriusXM and the broadcaster’s CFO (David Frear) announced at the same time, has ramped up in earnest, according to Chip Forrester at advance-television.com.

Forrester reports one influential analyst, Jessica Reif Ehrlich from the Bank of America, describes the changes as a “significant shake-up” and says that a move by John Malone’s Liberty Media – and perhaps also involving Live Nation Entertainment and perhaps iHeart Radio, where Malone holds stakes – could be a possibility.

Another commentator suggested that the appointment of new executives into SiriusXM could be a sign of changes to come.

Other comments argue that Meyer’s departure (at the end of this year, but he stays on the Board as vice-Chairman) is not much of a shock. He is, after all, 65 years-old.

The bigger surprise is the instant departure of Frear “ to pursue other opportunities” after 17 years – and one analyst suggests that he might have expected the CEO position and perhaps is the victim of disagreement.

However, according to an opinion piece at Seeking Alpha, the most likely explanation for the sudden departure of David Frear could be that he had hoped to become CEO himself after Jim Meyer's retirement. He has been 17 years in his role, which makes an immediate departure highly unusual.

Clearly, there is also the possibility that majority-owner Liberty Media is pushing for some move which Frear believes to be too risky from a financial standpoint. 

Yet we also have to consider that Frear has been perfectly fine with Liberty Media's decisions and strategy for many, many years. He was perfectly aware of Sirius XM being effectively controlled by John Malone's company and his alter ego Greg Maffei. Moreover, it is hard to argue that Liberty Media's direction has been bad for Sirius XM.