By Brandon Matthews
With Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) now entering its ninth day with a stock price that will allow the company to regain full NASDAQ compliance, TheStreet.com (NYSE:TSCM) has initiated an all out assault on Sirius XM using its unlimited ability to publish negative pieces through its YAHOO (NASDAQ:YHOO) news feed.
The planning for the attack began on April 20, 2010. It was on this morning, that TheStreet.com’s Robert Holmes asked StockTwits users what they felt were the biggest risks facing Sirius XM. Sirius XM was in its fifth day of compliance. Ironically, I was the only one to reply with the humorous suggestion that Street.com articles were in fact the biggest risk to Sirius XM. Truer words it turns out were never written.
On Thursday, Sirius XM was in its seventh day of compliance. The attack was launched with a video piece that morning that many construed as having a negative bias. In and of itself, the misguided video can certainly be viewed as an exercise in free speech. The record of TheStreet.com’s negative bias towards Sirius XM is well documented, which can be witnessed even now by their long held sell recommendation despite SIRI shares having risen over 2000% since March 2009.
On Friday, Sirius XM announced that it is about to complete the smart phone trilogy with the introduction of a Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android app, to compliment its Apple (Nasdaq: APPL) and Blackberry (Nasdaq: RIMM) applications. These apps have led to incremental revenue increases for Sirius XM, and the Android addition can be seen as nothing less than positive. TheStreet.com responded by re-releasing the same negative video under a different headline. Coincidence or conspiracy?
That question was answered yesterday, when TheStreet.com again re-published the negatively slanted video piece not once but TWICE under two different headlines. Both pieces were published at exactly 12:00, which indicates that they were scheduled to be republished. That does not happen by accident, and headlines don’t change themselves. With these four identical “news” pieces taking over YAHOO’s financial headlines for Sirius XM news, the positive news released by Sirius XM last week has been dwarfed. Sirius XM investors have sent dozens of letters to Yahoo demanding that the manipulative articles be removed. As of now, Yahoo has failed to respond to a single one that we know of, including our own complaint.
I have tried unsuccessfully for the last two years to get Satwaves news articles included in Yahoo’s financial news results, to no avail. There is always an automated response that the Yahoo news team will contact me within 24 hours, and it never happens. Yahoo it seems is intent on keeping any positive Sirius XM news off of its headlines, which has given me pause. I’m not just talking about Satwaves articles by the way. None of the major Satellite Radio news blogs have ever been given so much as a single line in Yahoo finance results. I had personally attempted to get another Satellite Radio site listed that I was formerly affiliated with, and achieved the same silent result.
I wondered who is running Yahoo that might have a vested interest in maintaining a negative public perception of Satellite Radio. As it turns out, a potential candidate sits on Yahoo’s Board of Directors. I’m speaking of Arthur Kern, whose Yahoo profile reads:
“Mr. Kern has served as a member of our Board of Directors since January 1996. Mr. Kern has been an investor in several media and marketing companies. Mr. Kern was also co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of American Media, Inc., a group owner of commercial radio stations sold to AMFM (now part of Clear Channel Communications, Inc.) in October 1994…“
Did you just have an “AHA!” moment? I know I did, when I realized the connection to the soon to be defunct Clear Channel (Nasdaq: CCO). This certainly could explain how TheStreet.com has been able to negatively influence Sirius XM shares over the years, while Yahoo not only allows it to happen, but prevents any other opinions from being presented. This of course amounts to censorship on the part of Yahoo, and I would suggest a boycott of Yahoo until such time as the company corrects its anti Sirius XM ways, up to and including a ban on Street.com releases.
Position: Long SIRI
Brandon, you are awesome at digging deep and sharing with us your finding. Thanks for your hardwork. Makes me want to add more to my position if I had more money.
Agree 150% Awesome job Brandon. Thank you so much from all of us SIRI longs! ONE MORE DAY BABY, ONE MORE DAY!!!
Agree 100%..
BM, I’m glad you are seeing what I’m seeing. The manipulation is out there and it is painfully obvious. I have already boycotted Yahoo, so I wasn’t aware of the most recent “stuff” going on.
I know they used to publish Rick M. from the MF when he was all negative last year. Recently he has warmed up to Siri, are any of his now positive articles being published there? If they are not publishing him now, that would be a clear sign.
Did they publish the most recent article from the Street.com about the $1.50 price target?
I’ve posted on the Street.com, only to find my posts deleted an hour later, all posts with no bad words, just disagreeing with Andrea Tse, and now I get Junk mail from them and Xramer 5 times a day.
They will not hold us down this time and they will again be left standing with their heads in there *ss’s
sent mine in im sick of it
I hate Yahoo. I stopped visiting Yahoo long ago – for several reasons.
Good mouring everyone. Exciting week faces us again. So yahoo and the street release some infomation that is in line with their beliefs. No big deal. I feel with GS sidelined the volume will not be there to move SIRI down a few cents. Now mind you SIRI is still suspected to have bullets left in the gun. Rumors perhaps but HMMMM. Stern seems to be a big deal to the rumor mill and wouldnt that be wild if that gets announced this week or on the CC. I feel it coming. 60k subs short of our record. HMMMMM. Been a few days I’m think its coming up. 170k subs x 9.95 (going low) x 12 months= 20 mill more a year. Did we break even last year? Okay so now we added more coming in. Lowering the day to day costs due to the merger finally finishing… Oh wait no competition and a renegoation of deals (MLB). The question is do they need us or do we need them now? All the phone apps. Debt moved out and lowered intrest. Hmmm. Possiblitity of streaming TV. Rumors of a SIRI phone, world wide service, google stepping in. Liberty stepping in. Lots of rumors. And a few fools not listening. I have watched the videos and dont buy into the hype. I am long and looking at the moon at this point. My main enjoyment is GS right now and their butts on the bench. With out a advisary of their magnitude we are back. And by the time they find their sacrafical lamb it will be too late and I will not have a finical worry in the world. Enjoy my friends and do not fear anymore. We are in it now. I feel the winds but this storm comes with $$$$$$$$$. Take care everyone happy buying this week.
Dont comment of my spelling only the content. I am not a journalist or an anyalist. Just a guy that is about to make a killing (again).
Wow, how the conspiracy grows. Thanks to your hard work Brandon,we are begining to see how all the dots connect.To bad the SEC can’t figure it out. Keep up the good work.
GREAT article. Rather amazing how quite SIRI is today and the volume is less dramatic.
Will this article be published on Seeking Alpha??? Hopefully so.
I gave up on Yahoo years ago. The biased site is horrible.
Great article, Brandon. You have certainly “nailed it” with regards to the obvious agenda and tactics, with significant new factual information in your report adding weight to your conclusions of a conspiracy to demean Sirius XM.
The truth is that SIRI remains dominantly strong, on a technical basis, and these blatantly obvious attempts to stem the upside tide are doomed to fail in the face of growing institutional demand for the stock. As SIRI rises, the credibility of TheStreet.com and Yahoo Finance falls in response – which is exactly the fate they deserve.
Looks like siriusbuzz.com is also busting some balls over this. I didnt get to alarmed over the articles because im used to negative yahoo articles and its pretty much an every day thing. The question i have is how much does these negative articles really hurt? They certainly dont help but who would make an investment based on a short video from thestreet.com?
I stopped using Yahoo since they started working with Microsoft. Nothing like manipulating the news in your own favor. Sounds like Fox News, they do the same thing.
SIRI: Long
Just told Yahoo I am deleting my email and I am now using Google for everything.
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/PRESS/contact.cfm
Flood their corporate dept with emails and let them know this is not acceptable. not acceptable that china censors google… definitely not acceptable that yahoo censors and uses their power against companies like this.
Re: your Clear Channel comment
The New York Post is such a credible source. I thought that headline next to pictures of Bigfoot and the UFO were quite convincing.
It’s hard to believe that the jerks in Kramers World using Yahoo (I don’t use site at all) I wish I knew how to post clips from cnbc, especially the one in where Kramer admits phoneing others to short stocks, and that the practice is used alot.
Great job Brandon!
Thanks for your efforts on this,,,
in stating the obvious, yahoo sucks!
I also sent a letter to yahoo, no response. I have also sent numerous complaints about the SIRI message board, never received one response from anyone at yahoo, I’m done with them. Is there anything illegal about what they are doing?
EXACTLY MY POINT LAST Thursday when I commented as Below:
BTW………..What was with those two twits on that Video discussing SIRI 3-Big Risks’ on TheStreet.com yesterday ??
The way I understood it, PANDORA’s death knell has been rung, so why is competition from this service considered ‘a Big Risk’ ??!
THE ABUSE that Blatantly occurs underneath everyones noses by the Main Stream Media is Appalling and should probably have us shead NO TEARS for them when they DO finally go by the wayside for being DINOSAURS…
It is sad that we are seemingly POWERLESS to have the “regulatory” bodies like the SEC get involved in any meaningful fashion to protect our investments as lowly retail investor’s !!!
Thanks for sites like these !!
Great job identifying the true nature of that post. If you take Jim Cramers suggestions your portfolio would be down 18% YTD, down 36% since the rally, down 64% since ’07…I’m sure his takes the opposite side of all his advice, lambs to Lions people.
Down with Crazy Cramer!
Your revelation will make compliance that much sweeter. Now we can add Kern’s name to the list of Siri bashers to laugh at when we meet compliance tomorrow. IN YOUR FACE KERN!
Well Done, Brandon ……… Well Done ! ..killer ……… keeper of the Blue Dog …… .
EVERYONE HOLD! IT I hate the street. Lets keep this stock over $1 and really have them scrambling. I knew this was coming. BUY OR HOLD! Don’t let it fall.
I even left Sharebuilder because of their use of thestreet.com as their main source for information. Still has the D (Sell rating) for the SIRI report. Garbage. Good thing that I listened to their information back when I bought SIRI with a cost average of .117.
Thanks street.
Google finance is great and E-trade has been nothing but the best thus far.
Good article BM.
BM you the Man! Best post ever! Goodbye yahoo mail, Hello gmail!
Brandon! As tough as it is sometimes, please keep fighting the good fight. Your articles are honest, informing, and well respected by MANY!
Street.com? What a joke! I learned very early in my trading days to avoid that website like the plague. It’s complete garbage and its not hard for any person to see the false data and how completely unprofessional that site actually is.
WRT Yahoo and Google. They have become very big over the years, however, people are also not idiots. Many people are starting to see their true colors and are not impressed with what they are seeing. “Everything that goes around comes around”, and it’s only a matter of time, if Google and Yahoo stay on the same track, that they become nothing more than mere search engines again.
Long SIRI
I am a CIO at a midsized company. I also own Sirius stock. I have instructed my team to eliminate access to Yahoo for all of our 2200 desktops. I am also contacting several of my colleagues who also own Sirius and asking them to do the same. This could result in removing Yahoo access for about 10,000 end users.
Well done, CoCio!! i hope many other CIO’s follow your lead!
Anybody NOTICED that Yahoo Radio is powered by CBS Radio?
Yahoo RADIO = CBS Radio
Just a little conflict of interest when you’re also a news feeder.
hxxp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CBQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.play.it%2Fplayer%2Fyahooplayer.html&rct=j&q=yahoo+radio+%22cbs+radio%22&ei=obDVS9PoI4KwsAOuuo2SDw&usg=AFQjCNFRmkkbFjImdp-_oH-MhnbCz3L_EA&sig2=JxNXGwpd0oNmX8w8ZXGijw
All I am seeing in that video and it’s promotion is 2 kids (the hosts) trying to gain significance with their drivel…
The resilience and the diehard SIRI investors will not panic this time and will prevail, we are going to prevail come tomorrow.
Great article Brandon. I have to say that it’s one of my favorites to date. The extra step that you took to do the eposé on Mr. Kern, was really impressive.Keep up the great work!
I was posting comments on TSC (especially at Andrea Tse’s half-truthed articles), over the fact that they would often be double & tripple headline posting on Yahoo finance, simply by changing article’s the release date (sometimes with a minor-irrelevant addition) or tweaking the headline slightly. I dared to call their practices “lazy journalism” with a “skewed agenda to bash SIRI”. I never cursed, I never threatened, I just questioned their deceptive practices. The end result was a permanent ban from posting comments on the TSC talkbacks for pointing out the truth.
The result was that my account was banned from posting in the talkbacks. TSC doesn’t like it when you call them out on their deceptive practices.
HAHAHAHa yahooo is a Joke., The Street is left out in the Cold, and SIrius XM is the HOt Heater Generating Heat inside. BUY BUY BUY….im guessing $1.40 by end of May and $1.80 by August. Possibly $2 bills by the end of the Years. but Thas by my observation Sirius Pals….RiCK Jr
I have been using Google finance for quotes and most of those street.com and some of the others bashers also appear there under news. But they also include satwaves, so it is more balanced. Forbes.com is another basher, in my opinion. I stay away from using any of those. I will now include Yahoo in that list. I think the performance and positives are negating their dribble, which I think most investors are seeing through by now. Thanks for putting it in print. Your article was included in my Google quote.
I agree that Yahoo news is controlled by “them”. They eliminated the news forums a couple years ago, no doubt because their leftist agenda was getting effective opposition.
But I don’t want Yahoo to die, it’s really too valuable, and I don’t want to be left with Gore’s communists at Google.
What’s the theory for why Street and Goldman Sachs would work against SIRI stock? Has to be a theory.
…Have any of your bothered to consider the many positive articles that are posted on thestreet.com about Sirius? Or that maybe sometimes sites republish stories merely because they’ve updated the information in a story? If thestreet was so biased against Siri, why would it be publishing all these evenhanded and positive stories about the company? Seems to be doing a bad job of trying to “drive the stock down,” if you ask me. You people need to stop being so hysterical, and understand that not every story about your stock is going to be positive.
******************************
Why Sirius XM Won’t Be Delisted
By Robert Holmes 04/22/10
Sirius XM has a meeting on April 29 to remain on the Nasdaq, but there should be little concern that the stock will be delisted
***************************************
Sirius XM Rebounds From Earlier Losses
By Andrea Tse 03/23/10
Sirius XM stock finished Monday’s trading session up about 4% to 86 cents after sliding 31% to 80 cents Monday morning
****************************
Moody’s Smiles on Sirius XM Debt Sale
By Andrea Tse 03/12/10
Moody’s believes that Sirius XM’s proposal Friday to sell $550 million in five-year senior unsecured guaranteed notes not only boosts its liquidity profile, but also helps remove the obstacle to a fully combined Sirius XM.
******************************
Sirius Stock Thunders On
By Andrea Tse 04/08/10
Sirius XM stock jumps as much as 41% to 99 cents a share during midday trading Thursday despite a relatively quiet news day for the company
****************************
Sirius XM Posts Surprise Profit
By Andrea Tse 02/25/10
Sirius XM has swung to a fourth quarter profit and expects full-year 2010 revenue roughly in line with expectations as it continues to see subscribers grow…
go read those articles…all contain negative counter-arguments. More importantly, you do NOT see Therag.com republishing positives articles 4 times in 3 days…
We have been onto the street’s bashing of sirius for a loooong time. A few smoke and mirrors posts will not gain them any credibility until they remove their sell recommendation from Sirius, which by the way they update every week
Not to mention this article; “***************************************
Sirius XM Rebounds From Earlier Losses
By Andrea Tse 03/23/10
Sirius XM stock finished Monday’s trading session up about 4% to 86 cents after sliding 31% to 80 cents Monday morning”
*********************************************
As I remember Andrea originally posted that article as a Sirius is tanking article early in the same day, pouring on the doom and gloom. She had to revise her headline after the stock rebounded from early morning dips. So it wasn’t a “positive” article to begin with
You are obviously new to SIRI. This has been going on for some time with “the street”. I don’t think the Yahoo message boards are full of mostly immature babble and i don’t aspire to follow “the streets” nor Cramer’s advise. That being said, that type of mentality and thinking has tripled my overall portfolio in 1 year and SIRI is not the only stock they bash that i own. Try any chinese stock or green energy. They have made their agenda clear for some time.
thestreet is a SIRI bashing machine,,, with, basically, only one agenda, and thats negative, if not, why would they have the negative rating they have on SIRI, as well as all negative press,,,
as Brandon stated, you really need to read all of the articles you mentioned,,,
get a clue!
I would don’t pay attention to the good or bad articles. It seems like the good ones can get you in more trouble.
Example..if someone is going to short SIRI stock based on that if they saw that article today..they may very well regret that tomorrow if the stock shoots up.
Plus those guys were either not very knowledgeable of Sirius.
I don’t know why people compare Pandora to Sirius. It’s like comparing a CD to Radio.
Are you going to stop listening to the radio cause you have a CD player?
I like CD’s. I like Pandora. But I’m not getting rid of my Sirius radio for them. You can’t listen to the NFL on either.
Anybody know why SIRI just jumped up .05?
new proposed trading rules
Really?
I read the announcement too and didn’t think it would have that much of an effect. Could you post something to help some of us understand the implications?
Does anybody else think that the 600MM share day we recently had was the shorts covering?
My gut tells me yes but I am hoping for a short squeeze.
Lets take bets on how much SIRI SP will drop tomorrow due to manipulation. I say the SP closes at $1 sharp or .999cents, but I think we will barley beat out the manipulators. BUT ALL AND ALL THE LONG STANDING HOLDERS OF XM WILL TRIUMPH OVER THEM OUT AND CELEBRATE. Tomorrow is a big day. If we close at almost the 52 week high and drop under $1 tomorrow… someone in the government needs to get involved. Not that it will help because the government is just as manipulated as the people fighting against SIRI.
HOLD ON BOYS! WE WILL REJOICE TOMORROW AT 4PM!
BUY! HOLD! BUY!
Just broke the 52 week high, 1.19 x 1.20
Booooohhhhhh yaaaaaa
John Stewart from “The Daily Show” took Cramer to task when he had him as a guest on his show. He showed that video of him talking about stock manipulation while he was interviewing him and Cramer squirmed and looked like an ass. Stewart really put it to him! CNBC should have canned his ass then. He comes off so humble and friendly, but he’s the “Poster Boy” of what is wrong with Wall Street and the main media. Hey “Morning Joe” get some balls and call him to task the next time he’s on your show. You saw the clip from Stewarts’ show, you just keep on kissing his ass, just because he is in the NBC stable. Joe you are a sell out!
John Stewart from “The Daily Show” took Cramer to task when he had him as a guest on his show. He showed that video of him talking about stock manipulation while he was interviewing him and Cramer squirmed and looked like an ass. Stewart really put it to him! CNBC should have canned his ass then. He comes off so humble and friendly, but he’s the “Poster Boy” of what is wrong with Wall Street and the main media. Hey “Morning Joe” get some balls and call him to task the next time he’s on your show. You saw the clip from Stewarts’ show, you just keep on kissing his ass, just because he is in the NBC stable. Joe you & Meka are a sell out!
Yahoo is “kaput”. Cramer is “kaput”. TSCM is “kaput”. Sirius XM will be rename a “Cash Cow”.
Well done Brandon, right on the money, and no doubt about.
I wrote more than 200 articles for the merger and to be email using Yahoo. 90% were return and I had to resend using Google. Viva la Google. Yahoo definitely has people who think that this is China. And Cramer should be in Jail for what he done to Sirius Radio. Nobody
has the right to scream in the theater “Fire”.
CNBC should fire him next day.
zora1
It all comes down to money. CBS Radio is filthy rich and powers among the others, AOL radio and Yahoo Radio. Yes, dozens of free channels that CBS “DONATES” to Yahoo.
Do you expect Yahoo somehow returning the favor? I do…
I”m not surprised at the negative campaigning, now that we see the blatant conflict of interest.
While on the face of it, Sirius/XM does have a number of legitimate risks and difficulties before it, this doesn’t help much.
It goes to show people will believe anything, if it’s screamed loudly enough.