ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
In addition to the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the information under the caption Item 1. Business “Competition,” the following risk factors should be considered carefully in evaluating us and our business.
Risks Relating to our Business and Operations
We face substantial competition, and that competition has increased over time.
We compete for the time and attention of our listeners with other content providers on the basis of a number of factors, including quality of experience, relevance, acceptance and perception of content quality, ease of use, price, accessibility, brand awareness, reputation and, in the case of our ad-supported Pandora service, perception of ad load, features and functionality. As consumer tastes and preferences change on the internet and with mobile and other connected products, including cars, in-home, and wearable devices, we will need to enhance and improve our existing products and services, introduce new services and features, and attempt to maintain our competitive position with additional technological advances and adaptable platforms.
If we fail to keep pace with technological advances or fail to offer compelling product offerings and state-of-the-art delivery platforms to meet consumer demands, our ability to maintain the reach of our services and attract and retain users and subscribers across our services will be adversely affected. Our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners also depends on our success in creating and providing popular or unique programming. A summary of certain services that compete with us is contained in the section entitled “Item 1. Business - Competition” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our subscribers and listeners can obtain similar content for free through Spotify, YouTube and other internet services as well as terrestrial radio stations. We also compete for the time and attention of our listeners with providers of other in-home and mobile entertainment services, and we compete for advertising sales with large scale online advertising platforms, such as YouTube, Amazon, Facebook and Google, and with traditional media outlets.
Our streaming services also compete for listeners on the basis of the presence and visibility of our apps, which are distributed via app stores operated by Apple and Google. We face significant competition for listeners from these companies, which also promote their own music and content. In addition, our competitors’ streaming products may be pre-loaded or integrated into consumer electronics products or automobiles more broadly than our streaming products, creating a significant advantage. If we are unable to compete successfully for listeners against other media providers, then our business may suffer. Additionally, the operator of an app store may reject our app or amend the terms of their license in a way that inhibits our ability to distribute our apps, negatively affects our business, or limits our ability to increase subscribers and listeners.
Competition could result in lower subscription, advertising or other revenue and an increase in our expenses and, consequently, lower our earnings and free cash flow. We cannot assure you we will be able to compete successfully with our existing or future competitors or that competition will not have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
Our SiriusXM service has suffered a loss of subscribers, and our Pandora ad-supported service has similarly experienced a loss of monthly active users.
The number of subscribers to our SiriusXM service has declined for the past two years, including in 2025. Similarly, the number of monthly active users to our ad-supported Pandora service has declined consistently for several years, including in
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2025. This loss of subscribers to our SiriusXM service and the decline in monthly active users to our Pandora ad-supported service is likely to continue in the future.
The number of subscribers to our SiriusXM service has declined due to a variety of factors, including a decline in the rate at which new car buyers convert their trial subscriptions into self-pay subscriptions. The decline in the number of SiriusXM subscribers may have a number of collateral effects on our business.
The size of our ad-supported listener base is an important element of our Pandora service. The decline in our listener base, including the shift of listening in connected homes and vehicles, has resulted in fewer listener hours and fewer available advertising spots on our Pandora service, which may contribute to declines in our advertising revenue and adversely affect our Pandora and Off-platform business. The contraction of our ad-supported listener base also decreases the size of demographic groups targeted by advertisers, which hurts our ability to deliver advertising in a manner that maximizes advertisers’ return on investment and compete with other larger advertising platforms.
If our efforts to attract and retain subscribers and listeners, or convert listeners into subscribers, are not successful, our business will be adversely affected.
Our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to attract new subscribers and listeners and retain our current subscribers and listeners.
Our ability to increase the number of subscribers and listeners to our services, retain our subscribers and listeners and convert listeners into subscribers is uncertain and subject to many factors, including:
• the price of our services;
• the ease of use of our services;
• the effectiveness of our marketing programs;
• with respect to our SiriusXM service, the sale or lease rate of new vehicles in the United States;
• the rate at which self-pay subscribers to our SiriusXM service buy and sell new and pre-owned vehicles in the United States;
• our ability to convince owners and lessees of new and used vehicles that include satellite radios to purchase subscriptions to our SiriusXM service;
• the perceived value of our programming and the packages and services we offer;
• our ability to introduce features in a manner that is favorably received by consumers;
• our ability to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and features in audio entertainment;
• our ability to respond to evolving consumer tastes; and
• actions by our competitors, such as Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, YouTube and other audio entertainment and information providers.
We engage in extensive marketing efforts and the continued effectiveness of those efforts is an important part of our business.
We engage in extensive marketing efforts across a broad range of media to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. We employ a wide variety of communications tools as part of our marketing campaigns, including telemarketing efforts, email solicitations and targeted and personalized digital outreach. The effectiveness of our marketing efforts is affected by a broad range of factors, including creative and execution factors and effective targeting. Our ability to reach consumers with radio and television advertising, performance and digital media, direct mail materials, email solicitations, telephone calls and digital campaigns is an important part of our efforts and a significant factor in the effectiveness of our marketing. If we are unable to reach consumers through email solicitations or telemarketing, including as a result of “spam” and email filters, call blocking technologies, restrictions in digital media on identifying users, such as limits on “cookies,” consumer privacy regulations, “do-not-call” and other marketing regulations, our marketing efforts will be adversely affected. A decline in the effectiveness of our marketing efforts could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
We rely on third parties for the operation of our business, and the failure of third parties to perform could adversely affect our business.
Our business depends, in part, on various third parties, including:
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• creators and licensors of software that support our apps and services;
• programming providers, including agreements with owners of various copyrights in music, and on-air talent;
• manufacturers that build and distribute satellite radios;
• vendors that have designed, built or launched, and vendors that support or operate, other important elements of our systems, including our satellites, marketing platforms, billing and payment processing, and the cloud-based systems we use;
• companies that manufacture and sell integrated circuits for satellite radios;
• vendors that operate our call centers;
• Apple, who distributes our apps through its App Store and who we rely on to collect fees and approve the terms of our consumer offers; and
• Google, who distributes our apps through its App Store and who we rely on to collect fees and approve the terms of our consumer offers, and who plays an important role in the fulfillment of the ads we sell on our Pandora platform.
If one or more of these third parties do not perform in a satisfactory or timely manner, including complying with our standards and practices relating to business integrity, personnel and cybersecurity, our business could be adversely affected.
The operation of our apps and service offerings could be impaired if errors occur in the software, including third party software, that supports our apps and services. It may be difficult for us to correct any defects in third party software because the development and maintenance of the software is not within our control. Our third party licensors may not continue to make their software available to us on acceptable terms, invest the appropriate levels of resources in their software to maintain and enhance its capabilities, or remain in business. Failure of these third party licensors could harm our streaming services.
In addition, a number of third parties on which we depend have experienced, and may in the future experience, financial difficulties or file for bankruptcy protection. Such third parties may not be able to perform their obligations to us in a timely manner, if at all, as a result of their financial condition or may be relieved of their obligations to us as part of seeking bankruptcy protection.
Failure to successfully monetize and generate revenues from podcasts and other non-music content could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Delivering podcasts and other non-music content involves risks and challenges, including increased competition and the need to develop new relationships with creators. We have entered into multi-year commitments for original podcast content that is produced by third parties. These agreements generally provide us the right to distribute the content and act as the agent for the sale of advertising in the podcasts. Payment terms for certain premium content typically requires more upfront cash payments, including minimum guarantees to the owner or creator of the podcast, than other content licenses or arrangements.
Given the multiple-year duration and largely fixed-cost nature of such commitments, if the attractiveness of such podcast or other non-music content to our listeners and subscribers does not meet our expectations, our margins could be adversely impacted. In addition, the advertising market for podcasts is still developing, including the advertising technology necessary to efficiently sell audio advertising within podcasts at scale. As a result, our ability to profitably monetize the available advertising opportunities in podcasts remains uncertain.
Growing our podcasting business may require additional changes to our business model, cost structure, and our infrastructure, and could expose us to new regulatory, legal and reputational risks. There is no guarantee that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue from podcasts to offset the costs of creating or acquiring this content. Our failure to successfully monetize and generate revenues from such content, including failure to obtain or retain rights to podcasts or other non-music content on acceptable terms, or at all, or to effectively manage the numerous risks and challenges associated with such expansion, could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We may not realize the benefits of acquisitions or other strategic investments and initiatives.
Our strategy has included and may include selective acquisitions, other strategic investments and initiatives to expand or reorganize our business. The success of any acquisition depends upon effective integration, cultural assimilation and management of acquired businesses and assets into our operations, which is subject to risks and uncertainties, including realizing the growth potential, the anticipated synergies and cost savings, the ability to retain and attract personnel, the diversion of management’s attention for other business concerns, and undisclosed or potential legal liabilities of the acquired business or assets.
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The integration process could distract our management, disrupt our ongoing business or result in inconsistencies in our services, standards, controls, procedures and policies, any of which could adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with customers, vendors and employees or to achieve the anticipated benefits of any such transaction or acquisition.
The impact of economic conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our success depends to a significant extent on discretionary consumer spending. Some of the factors that may influence consumer spending on entertainment include general economic conditions, the availability of discretionary income, inflationary pressure, consumer confidence, interest rates, and general uncertainty regarding the overall economic environment.
The demand for entertainment generally is sensitive to downturns in the economy and the corresponding impact on discretionary consumer spending. Any actual or perceived deterioration or weakness in general, regional or local economic conditions, as well as other adverse economic or market conditions, could reduce our subscribers’ or potential subscribers’ discretionary income. To the extent that overall economic conditions reduce spending on discretionary items, our ability to attract and retain subscribers could be hindered, which could reduce our subscription revenue and negatively impact our business.
Additionally, our financial performance is subject to economic conditions and their impact on levels of advertising spending. Expenditures by advertisers generally tend to reflect overall economic conditions, and reductions in spending by advertisers could have an adverse impact on our revenue and business. See “ Our Pandora and Off-platform business generates a significant portion of its revenues from advertising, and reduced spending by advertisers could harm our business . ”
Risks Relating to our SiriusXM Business
Changing consumer behavior and new technologies relating to our satellite radio business may reduce our subscribers and may cause our subscribers to purchase fewer services from us or to cancel our services altogether, resulting in less revenue to us.
New technologies, products and services are driving rapid changes in consumer behavior as consumers seek more control over when, where and how they consume audio content and access entertainment services. In particular, through technological advancements, a significant amount of audio content has become available through online content providers for users to stream and, in some cases, view on their phones, personal computers, televisions, tablets, video game consoles and other devices, in some cases without a fee required to access the content. For example, CarPlay, the Apple in-vehicle software, has become a near-ubiquitous feature in new cars, with most manufacturers integrating it into their infotainment systems, allowing iPhone users to readily access music and other audio entertainment while driving.
An increasing number of consumers are using mobile devices as the sole means of consuming audio entertainment, and an increasing number of providers are developing content and technologies to satisfy that demand. These technological advancements, changes in consumer behavior, and the increasing number of choices available to consumers regarding the means by which consumers obtain audio entertainment may cause our subscribers to cancel our satellite radio services, downgrade to smaller, less expensive programming packages, or elect to purchase through online content providers a certain portion of the services that they would have historically purchased from us. These technological advancements and changes in consumer behavior and/or our failure to effectively anticipate or adapt to such changes, could reduce our subscriber additions and increase our churn rate and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
A substantial number of our SiriusXM service subscribers periodically cancel their subscriptions, and we cannot predict how successful we will be at retaining customers.
As part of our business, we experience, and expect to experience in the future, subscriber turnover (i.e., churn). The number of subscribers to our SiriusXM service declined in 2024 and 2025 and may further contract in the future. If we are unable to retain current subscribers at expected rates, or the costs of retaining subscribers are higher than expected, our financial performance and operating results could be adversely affected.
We cannot predict how successful we will be at retaining customers who purchase or lease vehicles that include a subscription to our SiriusXM service. A substantial percentage of our SiriusXM subscribers are on promotional pricing plans, and our ability to retain these subscribers is uncertain. Historically, we have been unsuccessful in migrating a large portion of subscribers on promotional pricing plans to higher priced plans. Our promotional pricing strategy is widely known, which
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interferes with our ability to collect our ordinary subscription prices. In addition, a substantial number of those subscribers periodically cancel their subscriptions when offered a subscription at a higher price.
Our ability to profitably attract and retain new subscribers to our SiriusXM service is uncertain.
A number of factors may affect our ability to attract and retain subscribers to our SiriusXM service. The changing demographics of trialers to our service, such as the increase in “Millennial generation customers,” may increase the number of subscribers accustomed to consuming entertainment through ad-supported products. These changing demographics have affected and may continue to affect our ability to convert trial subscribers into self-paying subscribers. Similarly, our efforts to acquire subscribers purchasing or leasing pre-owned vehicles may attract price-sensitive consumers. Consumers purchasing or leasing pre-owned vehicles may be more price sensitive than consumers purchasing or leasing new vehicles, convert from trial subscribers to self-paying subscribers at a lower rate, or cancel their subscriptions more frequently than consumers purchasing or leasing new vehicles. Some of our marketing efforts may also attract more price-sensitive subscribers, and our efforts to increase the penetration of satellite radios in new, lower-priced vehicle lines may result in the growth of more economy-minded subscribers. Each of these factors may harm our revenue or require additional spending on marketing efforts to demonstrate the value of our SiriusXM service.
Our business depends in part upon the auto industry.
A substantial portion of the subscription growth for our satellite radio service has come from purchasers and lessees of new and pre-owned automobiles in the United States, and we expect this to be an important source of subscribers for our satellite radio service in the future.
We have agreements with major automakers to include satellite radios in new vehicles, although these agreements do not require automakers to install specific or minimum quantities of radios in any given period. Many of these agreements also require automakers to provide us data on sales of satellite radio-enabled vehicles, including in many cases the consumer’s name and address. Our business could be adversely affected if a number of automakers do not continue to include our SiriusXM service in their products or provide us with such data.
Automotive production and sales are dependent on many factors, including labor relations matters, the availability of vehicle components, national trade policies including tariffs and other trade barriers, consumer credit, general economic conditions, consumer confidence and fuel costs. Significant tariffs on imports from many countries including China, European Union countries, Japan, Canada and Mexico, could have a major impact on the price of auto parts, semi-finished products, components and raw materials and finished vehicles, resulting in declines of vehicle sales by automakers. To the extent vehicle sales decline, or the penetration of factory-installed satellite radios in those vehicles is reduced, our satellite radio service may be adversely impacted.
Sales of pre-owned vehicles represent a significant source of new subscribers for our satellite radio service. We have agreements with auto dealers, companies operating in the pre-owned vehicle market and other third parties to provide us with data on sales of pre-owned satellite radio-enabled vehicles, including in many cases the consumer’s name and address. The continuing availability of this data is important, and the loss or additional restrictions on our use of such data may harm our revenue and business.
Failure of our satellites would significantly damage our business.
The lives of the satellites required to operate our SiriusXM service vary depending on a number of factors, including:
• degradation and durability of solar panels;
• quality of construction;
• random failure of satellite components, which could result in significant damage to or loss of a satellite;
• amount of fuel the satellite consumes;
• the performance of third parties that manage the operation of our satellites; and
• damage or destruction as a result of electrostatic storms, terrorist attacks, collisions with other objects in space or other events, such as nuclear detonations, occurring in space.
In the ordinary course of operation, satellites experience failures of component parts and operational and performance anomalies. Components on several of our in-orbit satellites have failed, and from time to time we have experienced anomalies in the operation and performance of these satellites. These failures and anomalies are expected to continue in the ordinary course, and we cannot predict if any of these possible future events will have a material adverse effect on our operations or the
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life of our existing in-orbit satellites. In addition, we have entered into agreements for the construction and launch of two new satellites that are expected to be launched over the next two years, and material delays in the deployment of these satellites could be harmful to our business.
Any material failure of our operating satellites could cause us to lose customers for our SiriusXM service and could materially harm our reputation and our operating results. We do not have insurance for many of our in-orbit satellites. Additional information regarding our fleet of satellites is contained in the section entitled “Item 1. Business - Our Satellite Radio Systems” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our SiriusXM service may experience harmful interference from wireless operations.
The development of applications and services in spectrum adjacent to the frequencies licensed to us, as well as the combination of signals in other frequencies, may cause harmful interference to our satellite radio service in certain areas of the United States. Elimination of this interference may not be possible in all cases. In other cases, our efforts to reduce this interference may require extensive engineering efforts and additions to our terrestrial infrastructure. These mitigation efforts may be costly and take several years to implement and may not be entirely effective. In certain cases, we are dependent on the FCC to assist us in preventing harmful interference to our service.
Risks Relating to our Pandora and Off-platform Business
Our Pandora and Off-platform business generates a significant portion of its revenues from advertising, and reduced spending by advertisers could harm our business.
Our Pandora and Off-platform business generates a majority of its revenues from third parties advertising on the Pandora ad-supported service and other platforms. These advertisers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us and can terminate their contracts at any time.
Expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical, reflecting overall economic conditions and budgeting and buying patterns. Adverse macroeconomic conditions and new competitive product offerings have affected, and may continue to affect, the demand for audio advertising, resulting in fluctuations in the amounts advertisers spend on advertising, which could harm our financial condition and operating results.
Emerging industry trends may adversely impact our ability to generate revenue from advertising.
There are no uniform methods by which our advertiser-clients measure advertising effectiveness. As a result, new methods are regularly created and used by different advertiser-clients. We cannot integrate with all possible technological standards to measure advertising effectiveness and there is no guarantee that the standards with which we choose to integrate will be the standards ultimately selected by the majority of our advertiser-clients. There is also no guarantee that such standards will accurately reflect the true effectiveness of our advertising. Finally, our ability to integrate with technological standards may be limited by both emerging laws and third parties. If we fail to integrate with the technological standards preferred by our clients, or if those methodologies are inaccurate, our revenue may be adversely affected.
Our failure to convince advertisers of the benefits of our Pandora ad-supported service could harm our business.
Our ability to attract and retain advertisers, and ultimately to sell our advertising inventory, depends on a number of factors, including:
• the number of listener hours on the Pandora ad-supported service, particularly the number of listener hours attributable to high-value demographics;
• keeping pace with changes in technology and our competitors, some of which have significant influence over the distribution of our Pandora app;
• competing effectively for advertising with other dominant online products and services, such as Spotify, Google, Facebook and YouTube, as well as other marketing and media outlets;
• demonstrating the ability of advertisements to reach targeted audiences, including the value of mobile digital advertising;
• ensuring that new ad formats and ad product offerings are attractive to advertisers and that inventory management decisions (such as changes to ad load, frequency, prominence and quality of ads that we serve listeners) do not have a negative impact on listener hours; and
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• adapting to technologies designed to block the display of our ads.
Advertisers may leave us for competing alternatives at any time. Failure to demonstrate to advertisers the value of our Pandora service would result in reduced spending by, or loss of, advertisers, which would harm our revenue and business.
If we are unable to maintain our advertising revenue, our results of operations will be adversely affected.
In order to effectively monetize listener hours, we must, among other things, develop compelling ad product solutions.
The substantial majority of the total listening to our Pandora service occurs on mobile devices. We are engaged in efforts to continue to convince advertisers of the capabilities and value of mobile digital advertising and to direct an increasing portion of their advertising spend to our ad-supported Pandora service.
We do not currently have the ability to effectively capture a meaningful share of local audio advertising revenue, which may have an adverse impact on our future revenue.
Changes to mobile operating systems and browsers may hinder our ability to sell advertising and market our services.
We use shared common device identifiers that are universal in the advertising technology ecosystem, such as Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers, a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. We use these common device identifiers for targeting, advertising effectiveness and measurement for the Pandora’s advertising business and for Pandora’s consumer marketing purposes. These common device identifiers enable us to match audiences, including with second- and third-party data providers and measurement vendors, and enhance Pandora’s advertising targeting segments with additional data. In our programmatic advertising business, we use common identifiers for several important functions, such as targeting and bidding. We also use common device identifiers to evaluate the success of our Pandora brand consumer marketing campaigns.
Apple, as well as mobile operating system and browser providers, have implemented product features and plans that may adversely impact our ability to use these common identifiers and data collected in connection with these common identifiers in our Pandora business.
If we fail to accurately predict and play music, comedy or other content that our Pandora listeners enjoy, we may fail to retain existing listeners and attract new listeners.
A key differentiating factor between our Pandora service and other music content providers is our ability to predict music that our listeners will enjoy. The effectiveness of our personalized playlist generating system depends, in part, on our ability to gather and effectively analyze large amounts of listener data and feedback. We may not continue to be successful in enticing listeners to our Pandora service to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to enough songs to effectively predict and select new and existing songs. In addition, our ability to offer listeners songs that they have not previously heard and impart a sense of discovery depends on our ability to acquire and appropriately categorize additional tracks that will appeal to our listeners’ diverse and changing tastes. Many of our competitors currently have larger music and content catalogs than we offer and they may be more effective in providing their listeners with an appealing listener experience.
We also provide comedy and podcast content on our Pandora service, and we try to predict what our listeners will enjoy using technology similar to the technology that we use to generate personalized playlists for music. The risks that apply to our ability to satisfy our listeners’ musical tastes apply to comedy, podcasts and other content to an even greater extent, particularly since we do not yet have as large a data set on listener preferences for comedy, podcasts and other content, and have a smaller catalog of such content as compared to music.
Our ability to predict and select music, comedy, podcasts and other content that our listeners enjoy is important to the perceived value of our Pandora service to consumers and the failure to make accurate predictions would adversely affect our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners, increase listener hours and sell advertising.
Risks Relating to Laws and Governmental Regulations
Privacy and data security laws and regulations may hinder our ability to market our services, sell advertising and impose legal liabilities.
We receive a substantial amount of personal data from third parties on purchasers and lessees of new and pre-owned vehicles and from and about listeners to our services. We use this personal data to market our services and to enhance our advertising business. Regulations and obligations on third party data providers may restrict or reduce the third party data we
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receive or the manner in which we use such third party data. We collect and use demographic, service usage, purchase history and other information from and about our listeners through interactions with our products and services and content over the internet. Further, we and third parties use tracking technologies, including “cookies” and related technologies, to help us manage and track our listeners’ interactions with our services and deliver relevant advertising.
Various federal and state laws and regulations, as well as the laws of foreign jurisdictions, govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of the personal data we receive. Privacy groups and government authorities have increasingly scrutinized the ways in which companies collect and share personal data, and we expect such scrutiny to increase. Alleged violations of laws and regulations relating to privacy and personal data may expose us to potential liability, may require us to expend significant resources in responding to and defending such allegations and claims and could in the future result in negative publicity and a loss of confidence in us by our subscribers, listeners, advertisers and other third parties.
Privacy-related laws and regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European General Data Protection Regulation, are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. Various federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies as well as foreign legislative and regulatory bodies may expand current or enact new laws regarding privacy and data security-related matters. We may not be in compliance with all of the new laws and regulations regarding privacy.
New laws, amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and contractual obligations, as well as changes in our listeners’ expectations and demands regarding privacy and data security, may limit our ability to collect and use consumer data. Restrictions on our ability to receive, collect and use consumer data could limit our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. In addition, restrictions on our ability to collect, access and process listener data, or to use or disclose listener data or profiles that we develop using such data, could limit our ability to market our content and services to our potential listeners and offer targeted advertising opportunities to our advertisers, each of which are important to our business. Increased regulation of personal data utilization practices and compliance administration could increase our costs of operation or otherwise adversely affect our business.
Consumer protection laws and our failure to comply with them could damage our business.
Federal and state consumer protection laws, rules and regulations cover nearly all aspects of our marketing efforts. The nature of our business requires us to expend significant resources to try to ensure that our marketing activities comply with consumer protection laws. These efforts may not be successful, and we may have to expend even greater resources in our compliance efforts.
In November 2024, a New York Court found that our cancellation practices violated the “simple mechanism requirement” for subscription cancellations in the federal Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. As a result of the Court’s findings, we now permit New York residents who purchase a subscription online to also cancel that subscription online, a cancellation mechanism that we believe is at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to initiate the subscription. In addition, other governmental authorities have commenced investigations into our consumer practices, including the manner in which we allow consumers to cancel subscriptions to our services.
Modifications to consumer protection laws, including laws regarding the manner in which consumers can cancel our services as well as decisions by courts and administrative agencies interpreting these laws, could have an adverse impact on our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. There can be no assurance that new laws or regulations will not be enacted or adopted, pre-existing laws or regulations will not be more strictly enforced or that our operations will comply with all applicable laws, which could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
Failure to comply with FCC requirements could damage our business.
We hold FCC licenses and authorizations to operate commercial satellite radio services in the United States, including satellites, terrestrial repeaters and related authorizations. The FCC generally grants licenses and authorizations for a fixed term. Although we expect our licenses and authorizations to be renewed in the ordinary course upon their expiration, there can be no assurance that this will be the case. Any assignment or transfer of control of any of our FCC licenses or authorizations must be approved in advance by the FCC.
The operation of our satellite radio systems is subject to significant regulation by the FCC under authority granted through the Communications Act of 1934 and related federal law. We are required, among other things, to operate only within specified frequencies; to coordinate our satellite radio services with radio systems operating in the same range of frequencies in neighboring countries; and to coordinate our communications links to our satellites with other systems that operate in the same frequency band.
Noncompliance by us with these requirements or other conditions or with other applicable FCC rules and regulations could result in fines, additional license conditions, license revocation or other detrimental FCC actions. There is no guarantee
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that Congress will not modify the statutory framework governing our services, or that the FCC will not modify its rules and regulations in a manner that would have an adverse impact on our operations.
We may face lawsuits, incur liability or suffer reputational harm as a result of content published or made available through our services.
The nature of our business could expose us to claims or public criticism related to defamation, illegal content, misinformation, and content regulation. We could incur costs investigating and defending any such claims. In addition, some stakeholders may disagree with third-party content provided through our services, and negative public criticism of this content could damage our reputation and brands. If we incur material costs, liability, or negative consumer reaction as a result of these occurrences, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely impacted.
Increasing interest and expectations regarding sustainable business practices by our various stakeholders and related reporting obligations may expose us to potential liabilities, increased costs, reputational harm and other adverse effects.
In recent years, there has been heightened interest from governments, regulators, investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders on sustainability matters (sometimes called “ESG” matters), including climate change and greenhouse gas emissions; human capital management; cybersecurity; content moderation; diversity and inclusion; and human and civil rights. Our reporting and disclosures in response to these expectations may require additional investments and reporting processes, introduce additional compliance risk, and depend in part on third-party performance or data that is outside our control. Related initiatives, and implementation of these initiatives, also involve risks and uncertainties, and we cannot guarantee that we will make progress against or achieve any sustainability-related objectives that we have announced or may announce in the future. Furthermore, more recently different stakeholder groups and the federal government have advocated divergent (or conflicting) views on ESG matters, which increases the risk that any action, or lack thereof, with respect to ESG matters will be perceived unfavorably by certain stakeholders. In addition, a growing number of U.S. states have enacted or proposed “anti-ESG” or “anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies, legislation, initiatives or issued related legal opinions, and have engaged in related regarding ESG matters. Such outcomes could impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Any , or perceived , to further our initiatives, adhere to public statements, comply with federal or state sustainability laws and regulations, or meet evolving and varied stakeholder expectations and standards could result in legal and regulatory proceedings us and affect our business, reputation, financial condition, and operations results.
Risks Associated with Data and Cybersecurity and the Protection of Consumer Information
If we fail to protect the security of personal information about our customers, we could be subject to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation and our reputation could suffer.
The nature of our business involves the receipt and storage of personal information about our subscribers and listeners including, in some cases, credit and debit card information. We have a program in place to detect and respond to data security incidents. However, the techniques used to gain unauthorized access to data systems are constantly evolving and may not be detected for long periods of time. We may be unable to anticipate or prevent unauthorized access to data pertaining to our customers, including credit card and debit card information and other personally identifiable information. Our services, which are supported by our own systems and those of third-party vendors, could be subject to computer malware and attacks as well as to catastrophic events (such as fires, floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes), any of which could lead to system interruptions, delays, or shutdowns, causing loss of critical data or the access to personally identifiable information.
If an actual or perceived breach of security occurs on our systems or a vendor’s systems, we could be exposed to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation and our reputation could suffer. We may also be required to expend significant resources to address these problems, including notification under various data privacy regulations, and our operating results could suffer. In addition, our subscribers and listeners, as well as potential customers, could lose confidence in our ability to protect their personal information, which could cause them to discontinue or forego the use of our services. This loss of confidence would also harm our efforts to attract and retain advertisers and to obtain personal information from third parties, and unauthorized access to our programming would potentially create additional royalty expense with no corresponding revenue. Such events could affect our results of operations. Further, the costs of maintaining adequate protection such as they develop in the future (or as legal requirements related to data security increase) could be material.
In addition, hardware, software, or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities, or those of third parties with whom we do business, through fraud, trickery,
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or other forms of deceit. We may not be able to effectively control the unauthorized actions of third parties who may have access to the data we collect.
To date, we are not aware that we have had a significant cyber-attack or breach that has had a material impact on our business or results of operations. We have implemented systems and processes intended to secure our information technology systems and prevent unauthorized access to or loss of sensitive, confidential and personal data, including through the use of encryption and authentication technologies. Additionally, we have increased our monitoring capabilities to enhance early detection and timely response to potential security anomalies.
However, the cyber security measures we have implemented may not be sufficient to prevent all possible attacks and may be vulnerable to hacking, employee error, ransom attacks, malfeasance, system error, faulty password management, social engineering or other irregularities. Further, the development and maintenance of these measures are costly and require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become increasingly sophisticated.
We use artificial intelligence in our business, and challenges with properly managing its use could result in reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability, and adversely affect our results of operations.
We incorporate various artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions into our digital infrastructure, services, offerings and features, and these applications are becoming important in our operations. We have general policies regarding the use of AI platforms in our business and seek to monitor the use of AI based applications throughout our enterprise. However, such measures may not eliminate the risks related to the use of AI in our business. Additionally, if the content, analyses, search results or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are, or are alleged to be, deficient, inaccurate, biased or in violation of third parties’ intellectual property rights, our business, reputation, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The use of AI applications may result in cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of consumers. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AI applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AI also presents emerging ethical issues, such as the proper use of copyrighted material with AI applications, and if our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability. The rapid evolution of AI, including the government regulation of AI, will require significant resources to develop, test and maintain our platform, offerings, services, and features to help us implement AI in a manner that minimizes unintended, harmful impacts.
Regulations related to AI may also impose on us certain obligations and costs related to monitoring and compliance. Regulators are increasing scrutiny and considering, and in some cases enacting, regulation of the use of AI, including regarding the use of “big data,” diligence of data sets and oversight of data vendors. The use of AI by us and others may require compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks that are not fully developed or tested, and we may face litigation and regulatory actions related to our use of AI.
Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their products and operations more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations.
Interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business.
We rely on our own systems and systems of third-party vendors to enable subscribers and listeners to access our Pandora and SiriusXM services in a dependable and efficient manner. Any degradation in the quality, or any failure, of our systems could reduce our revenues, cause us to lose customers and damage our brands. Although we have implemented practices designed to maintain the availability of the information technology and service delivery systems we rely on and mitigate the harm of any unplanned interruptions, we cannot anticipate all eventualities. We occasionally experience unplanned outages or technical difficulties. We could also experience loss of data or processing capabilities, which could cause us to customers and could our reputation and operating results.
We rely on internal systems and external systems maintained by manufacturers, distributors and service providers to take, fulfill and handle customer service requests and host certain online activities. Any interruption or failure of our internal or external systems could prevent us from servicing customers or cause data to be unintentionally disclosed. Our services have experienced, and we expect them to continue to experience, periodic service interruptions and delays involving our own systems and those of our vendors.
Our data centers and our information technology and communications systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, malicious attacks, fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses or other attempts to harm our systems. The occurrence of any of these events could result in interruptions in our services and unauthorized access
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to, or alteration of, the content and data contained on our systems and that these third-party vendors store and deliver on our behalf.
Damage or interruption to data centers and information technology and communications centers could expose us to data loss or manipulation, disruption of service, monetary and reputational damages, competitive disadvantage and significant increases in compliance costs and costs to improve the security and resiliency of our computer systems. The compromise of personal, confidential or proprietary information could also subject us to legal liability or regulatory action under evolving cybersecurity, data protection and privacy laws and regulations enacted by the U.S. federal and state governments or other foreign jurisdictions or by various regulatory organizations. As a result, our ability to conduct our business and our results of operations might be adversely affected.
Risks Associated with Certain Intellectual Property Rights
Rapid technological and industry changes and new entrants could adversely impact our services.
The audio entertainment industry is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent product and feature innovations, changes in customer requirements and expectations, evolving standards and new entrants offering products and services. If we are unable to keep pace with these changes, our business may not succeed. Products using new technologies could make our services less competitive in the marketplace.
The market for music rights is changing and is subject to significant uncertainties.
We must maintain music programming royalty arrangements with, and pay license fees to, owners of rights in musical works in order to operate our services. Traditionally, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and GMR have negotiated for these copyright users, collected royalties and distributed them to songwriters and music publishers. These traditional arrangements are changing. The fracturing of the traditional system for licensing rights in musical works may have significant consequences to our business, including increasing licensing costs and reducing the availability of certain pieces for use on our services.
Under the United States Copyright Act, we also must pay royalties to copyright owners of sound recordings for the performance of such sound recordings on our SiriusXM service. Those royalty rates may be established through negotiation or, if negotiation is unsuccessful, by the Copyright Royalty Board. Owners of copyrights in sound recordings have created SoundExchange, an organization which negotiates licenses and collects and distributes royalties on behalf of record companies and performing artists. SoundExchange is exempt by statute from certain U.S. antitrust laws and exercises significant market power in the licensing of sound recordings. Under the terms of the Copyright Royalty Board’s existing decision governing sound recording royalties for satellite radio, we are required to pay a royalty based on our gross revenues associated with our satellite radio service, subject to certain exclusions, of 15.5% per year through December 31, 2027. A proceeding to determine sound recording royalties for satellite radio for the period beginning January 1, 2028 and ending December 31, 2032, has been noticed.
As discussed above under the caption Item 1. Business – Copyrights to Programming – Sound Recordings, in January 2024, the CRB commenced a rate setting proceeding covering the statutory license for non-interactive streaming services for the period from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2030.
Significant increases in royalty rates may materially impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our Pandora services depend upon maintaining complex licenses with copyright owners, and these licenses contain onerous terms.
Pandora has direct license agreements with many sound recording copyright and musical work copyright owners. These agreements grant us the right to operate Pandora Premium, and add interactive features, such as replays, additional skips and offline play, to Pandora’s ad-supported service and to Pandora Plus.
The economic terms of these direct licenses are onerous and grant the licensors broad rights over the Pandora services. As a result of these terms, we may not be able to profitably operate the Pandora services. However, the economic terms of these direct licenses may be “market,” given the rates paid by Pandora’s competitors. Competition for Pandora’s services are primarily offered by entities that provide music and entertainment services as a small part of a larger business, such as Apple, Google, Amazon and YouTube. These competitors have the ability to bear these onerous economic provisions to a much greater extent than our Pandora business. We have not been able to negotiate or obtain lower royalty rates under these direct licenses.
These direct licenses are complex. We may not be in compliance with the terms of these licenses, which could result in the loss of some or all of these licenses and some or all of the rights they convey. Similarly, many of these licenses provide that
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if the licensor loses rights in a portion of the content licensed under the agreement, that content may be removed from the license going-forward.
If Pandora fails to maintain these direct licenses, or if rights to certain music were no longer available under these licenses, then we may have to remove the affected music from Pandora’s services, or discontinue certain interactive features for such music, and it might become commercially impractical for us to operate Pandora Premium, Pandora Plus or certain features of our advertising-supported service. Any of these occurrences could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Several of these direct licenses also include provisions related to the terms of those agreements relative to other content licensing arrangements, which are commonly referred to as “most favored nation” clauses. These provisions have caused, and may in the future cause, our payments under those agreements to escalate substantially. In addition, SoundExchange, many record labels, music publishers and performing rights organizations have the right to audit our royalty payments, and these audits often result in disputes over whether we have paid the proper amounts. As a result of such audits, we could be required to pay additional amounts, audit fees and interest or penalties, and the amounts involved could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
There is no guarantee that these direct licenses will be renewed in the future or that such licenses will be available on the economic terms associated with the current licenses. If we are unable to secure and maintain direct licenses for the rights to provide music on our Pandora services on terms similar to those under our current direct licenses, our content costs could rise and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to protect our intellectual property or actions by third parties to enforce their intellectual property rights could substantially harm our business and operating results.
Development of our systems has depended upon the intellectual property that we have developed, as well as intellectual property licensed from third parties. If the intellectual property that we have developed or use is not adequately protected, others will be permitted to and may duplicate portions of our systems or services without liability. In addition, others may challenge, invalidate, render unenforceable or circumvent our intellectual property rights, patents or existing licenses or we may face significant legal costs in connection with defending and enforcing those intellectual property rights. Some of the know-how and technology we have developed, and plan to develop, is not now, nor will it be, covered by U.S. patents or trade secret protections. Trade secret protection and contractual agreements may not provide adequate protection if there is any unauthorized use or disclosure. The loss of necessary technologies could require us to substitute technologies of lower quality performance standards, at greater cost or on a delayed basis, which could us.
Other parties may have patents or pending patent applications, which will later mature into patents or inventions that may block or put limits on our ability to operate our system or license our technologies. We may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights under license agreements or to determine the scope and validity of other parties’ proprietary rights in the subject matter of those licenses. This may be expensive and we may not succeed in any such litigation.
Third parties may assert claims or bring suit against us for patent, trademark or copyright infringement, or for other infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property rights. Any such litigation could be costly, divert our efforts from our business, subject us to significant liabilities to third parties, require us to seek licenses from third parties, block our ability to operate our services or license our technology, or otherwise adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market our services.
Some of our services and technologies use “open source” software, which may restrict how we use or distribute our services or require that we release the source code subject to those licenses.
We incorporate in some products software licensed under “open source” licenses. Open source licenses often require that the source code be made available to the public and that any modifications or derivative works to the open source software continue to be licensed under open source licenses. Few courts have interpreted open source licenses, and the manner in which these licenses may be interpreted and enforced is therefore subject to uncertainty. In the event that portions of our proprietary technology are determined to be subject to an open source license, we may be required to publicly release portions of our source code, be forced to re-engineer all or a portion of our technologies, or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our technologies, each of which could adversely affect our ability to sustain and grow our business.
Risks Related to our Capital Structure
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While we currently pay a quarterly cash dividend to holders of our common stock, we may change our dividend policy at any time.
We currently pay a quarterly cash dividend to holders of our common stock, although we have no obligation to do so, and our dividend policy may change at any time without notice to our stockholders. The declaration and payment of dividends is at the discretion of our board of directors in accordance with applicable law after considering various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs, limitations imposed by our indebtedness, legal requirements and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant.
Our holding company structure could restrict access to funds of our subsidiaries that may be needed to pay third party obligations.
Sirius XM Holdings is a holding company, and its assets consist of its investments in its subsidiaries, including Sirius XM Inc. and Sirius XM Radio LLC. As a holding company, our ability to meet our financial obligations to third parties is dependent upon our available cash balances, distributions from subsidiaries and other investments and proceeds from any asset sales. Further, our ability to receive dividends or payments or advances from our subsidiaries’ businesses depends on their individual operating results, any statutory, regulatory or contractual restrictions to which they are or may become subject and the terms of their indebtedness (including the restrictive covenants contained in Sirius XM Radio LLC’s credit agreement and indentures) and any additional debt they may incur in the future. Accordingly, our ability to make payments to third parties and to otherwise meet our financial obligations at the holding company level may be constricted.
We have significant indebtedness, and our subsidiaries’ debt contains certain covenants that restrict their operations.
We have significant indebtedness. As of December 31, 2025, we had an aggregate principal amount of approximately $9.8 billion of indebtedness outstanding.
Our indebtedness and the indebtedness of our subsidiaries:
• increases our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;
• requires us and our subsidiaries to dedicate a portion of our and/or their cash flow from operations to payments on indebtedness, reducing the availability of cash flow to fund capital expenditures, marketing and other general corporate activities;
• limits our and our subsidiaries’ abilities to borrow additional funds; and
• may limit our and our subsidiaries’ flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the audio entertainment industry.
In addition, Sirius XM Radio LLC’s borrowings under its Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility (the “Credit Facility”), including the Incremental Term Loan (the “Delayed Draw Incremental Term Loan”), carry a variable interest rate based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). Sirius XM Radio LLC may, in the future, hedge against interest rate fluctuations by using hedging instruments such as swaps, caps, options, forwards, futures or other similar products. These instruments may be used to selectively manage risks, but there can be no assurance that we will be fully protected against material interest rate fluctuations.
If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to repay or refinance our debt on favorable terms, it could significantly adversely affect our financial condition and the value of our outstanding debt.
Our ability to incur additional indebtedness to fund our operations could be limited, which could negatively impact our operations.
We have a substantial amount of indebtedness maturing in the next several years. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness on favorable terms, or at all, is dependent on (among other things) conditions in the credit and capital markets, which are beyond our control. In addition, any such refinancing efforts may increase our debt service obligations as we refinance lower interest rate debt with higher interest rate debt. Any refinancing of our debt may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. If additional debt financing is not available to us in the future or we are unable to access funds of our subsidiaries, we may obtain liquidity through the issuance and sale of our equity securities. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of equity securities, our stockholders may experience significant dilution. If we are unable to obtain sufficient liquidity in the future, we may be unable to continue to develop our business, complete acquisitions or otherwise take advantage of business opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Risks Relating to the Transactions
We may have a significant indemnity obligation to Liberty Media, which is not limited in amount or subject to any cap, if the transactions associated with the Split-Off are treated as a taxable transaction.
Pursuant to the Tax Sharing Agreement that we entered into with Liberty Media in connection with the Split-Off, we are required to indemnify Liberty Media, its subsidiaries and certain related persons for taxes and losses (other than any taxes or tax-related losses that result from Section 355(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) applying to the Split-Off as a result of the Split-Off being part of a plan (or series of related transactions) pursuant to which one or more persons acquire a 50-percent or greater interest (measured by vote or value) in the stock of Liberty Media) resulting from the failure of the transactions associated with the Split-Off to qualify as a generally tax-free transaction under Section 355, Section 368(a)(1)(D) and related provisions of the Code to the extent that such taxes and losses (a) result primarily from, individually or in the aggregate, the breach of certain covenants made by us (applicable to actions or failures to act by us and our subsidiaries following the completion of the Split-Off), (b) result primarily from, individually or in the aggregate, the failure of certain representations made by us in support of the opinion of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (“Skadden Arps”) regarding the generally tax-free status of the transactions associated with the Split-Off to be true and correct, or (c) result from the application of Section 355(e) of the Code to the Split-Off as a result of the treatment of the Split-Off as part of a plan (or series of related transactions) pursuant to which one or more persons acquire, directly or indirectly, a 50% or interest (measured by vote or value) in our stock (or any successor corporation), except, in the case of clauses (a) and (b), if such taxes and result from an action required to be taken pursuant to the agreements governing the Transactions.
Our indemnification obligations to Liberty Media, its subsidiaries and certain related persons are not limited in amount or subject to any cap. If we are required to indemnify Liberty Media, its subsidiaries or such related persons under the circumstances set forth in the Tax Sharing Agreement, we may be subject to substantial liabilities, which could materially adversely affect our financial position.
We may determine to forgo certain transactions that might otherwise be advantageous in order to avoid the risk of incurring significant tax-related liabilities.
Under the Tax Sharing Agreement, we agreed not to take certain actions, or fail to take any action, following the Split-Off, which action or failure to act would be inconsistent with the transactions associated with the Split-Off qualifying under Section 355, Section 368(a)(1)(D) and related provisions of the Code. In particular, for the two-year period following the distribution, we are subject to specific restrictions that are intended to preserve the generally tax-free status of the Split-Off, including restrictions on our ability to discontinue the conduct of certain businesses, to merge, consolidate, liquidate, or dissolve Sirius XM Holdings or Sirius XM Inc., to redeem or repurchase our common stock, or to enter into certain other corporate transactions that may cause us to undergo either a 45% or greater change in the ownership of our voting stock or a 45% or greater change in the ownership (measured by value) of all classes of our stock, taking into account the Merger. Further, the Tax Sharing Agreement requires us to indemnify Liberty Media for any taxes or losses (subject to certain exceptions) incurred by Liberty Media (or its subsidiaries) to the extent that such taxes and (a) result primarily from, individually or in the aggregate, the of certain covenants made by us (applicable to actions or to act by us and our subsidiaries following the completion of the Split-Off), (b) result primarily from, individually or in the aggregate, the of certain representations made by us in support of the opinion of Skadden Arps regarding the generally tax-free status of the transactions associated with the Split-Off to be true and correct, or (c) result from the application of Section 355(e) of the Code to the Split-Off as a result of the treatment of the Split-Off as part of a plan (or series of related transactions) pursuant to which one or more persons acquire, directly or indirectly, a 50% or interest (measured by vote or value) in our stock (or any successor corporation).
Under Section 355(e) of the Code, an acquisition of our stock would generally be presumed to be part of a plan (or series of related transactions) with the Split-Off if such acquisition occurs within two years before or after the Split-Off (or if such stock is received in the Split-Off in exchange for Liberty SiriusXM common stock (as defined in Part II, Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations) that was acquired within the two years before the Split-Off). This presumption, however, may be rebutted based upon an analysis of the facts and circumstances related to the Split-Off and the particular acquisition in question, including a weighing of certain plan and non-plan factors set forth in U.S. Treasury Regulations promulgated under Section 355(e) of the Code. Further, these U.S. Treasury Regulations provide certain safe harbors under which an acquisition will be deemed not to be part of a plan (or series of related transactions) with the Split-Off for purposes of Section 355(e) of the Code.
In light of the Tax Sharing Agreement and the requirements under Section 355 of the Code, including the factors and safe harbors described above, we may determine to forgo certain transactions that might otherwise be advantageous. In
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particular, we may determine to continue to operate certain of our business operations for the foreseeable future even if a sale of such business operations might otherwise be advantageous. Moreover, we might determine to forgo certain transactions, including share repurchases, stock issuances, certain asset dispositions and other strategic transactions, for some period of time following the Split-Off. In addition, our indemnity obligations under the Tax Sharing Agreement might discourage, delay or prevent us entering into a change of control transaction for some period of time following the Split-Off.
We have assumed and are responsible for all of the liabilities attributed to the Liberty SiriusXM Group as a result of the completion of the Transactions, and acquired the assets of SplitCo on an “as is, where is” basis.
We acquired all of SplitCo’s assets and assumed, performed, discharged and fulfilled all of the liabilities of SplitCo, as applicable, regardless of when or where such liabilities arose or arise. The assets of SplitCo were conveyed to us on an “as is, where is” basis, and while Liberty Media is subject to certain indemnification obligations in favor of us, these are generally limited to indemnification for certain indemnifiable losses to the extent arising out of, relating to or in connection with the businesses, assets and liabilities retained by Liberty Media (or any third party claims related thereto) or any breach or failure to perform or comply with any covenant, undertaking or obligation of Liberty Media or its subsidiaries (other than us or our subsidiaries).
Furthermore, there are no remedies available to the parties to the Merger Agreement with respect to any breach of representations of such parties, except for certain rights the party may have under applicable law to bring a claim for fraud or willful breach of the Merger Agreement.
As a result, we bear full responsibility for any and all assets and liabilities of SplitCo. To the extent any of the liabilities of SplitCo are larger than anticipated, or an issue with any asset of SplitCo prohibits our businesses from performing as planned, they could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be harmed by securities class actions and derivative lawsuits in connection with the Transactions.
Securities class action lawsuits and derivative lawsuits are often brought against public companies that have entered into agreements for significant transactions such as the Transactions in an effort to seek monetary relief. In October 2024, purported stockholders commenced an action in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware against Liberty Media, John C. Malone and members of the board of directors of Old Sirius relating to the Transactions. The plaintiffs allege that the Transactions were unfair to minority stockholders and unduly favored Liberty Media because, among other things: we have taken on tax liabilities; we have assumed Liberty Media’s debt; and the Transactions enabled Liberty Media to appoint a majority of our board of directors with staggered terms to give Liberty Media at least three years of board-level control. The plaintiffs also allege that the Transactions closed a multi-billion-dollar valuation gap between the price at which the Liberty SiriusXM common stock traded in the market and the net asset value of the underlying assets the Liberty SiriusXM common stock “tracked,” which solely Liberty Media stockholders, and that the Special Committee to negotiate a fair exchange ratio in light of these benefits to Liberty Media.
Even if such lawsuit, and future lawsuits relating to the Transactions, are without merit or resolved in our favor, defending against these claims may result in substantial costs and divert management time and resources from other potentially beneficial business opportunities. We cannot predict whether additional lawsuits will be brought against us or the outcome of the pending lawsuit, nor can we predict the amount of time and expense that will be required to resolve any of this litigation.
It may be difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so may be beneficial to our stockholders.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated charter and amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control that a stockholder may consider favorable.
These provisions include the following:
• establishing a classified board of directors, with staggered terms until the third annual meeting after the effective time of the Merger, which may lengthen the time required to gain control of our board of directors;
• allowing the authorized number of directors on the board of directors to be changed only by resolution of the board of directors;
• permitting only the board of directors to fill vacancies on the board;
• limiting who may call special meetings of stockholders;
• prohibiting stockholder action by written consent (subject to certain exceptions), thereby requiring stockholder action to be taken at a meeting of the stockholders;
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• requiring stockholder approval by holders of at least 66-2∕3% in voting power of all then-outstanding shares entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class, with respect to an amendment to our amended and restated bylaws and with respect to an amendment to particular articles of our amended and restated charter;
• establishing advance notice requirements for nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings;
• no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect candidates to serve as a director on the board;
• an exclusive forum provision providing that (a) the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for certain actions and proceedings and (b) the federal district courts will be the exclusive forum for causes of action arising under federal securities law, in each case unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum; and
• the existence of authorized and unissued stock, including “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by our board of directors to persons friendly to our then-current management, thereby protecting the continuity of our management, or which could be used to dilute the stock ownership of persons seeking to obtain control of us.
Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware and are governed by Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), pursuant to our amended and restated charter, an “interested stockholder” (as such term is defined in the DGCL) is prohibited from merging or combining with us, or engaging in other “business combinations,” for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of the outstanding voting stock, except in certain circumstances. These provisions in our amended and restated charter and amended and restated bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control that a stockholder may consider favorable.
We have directors associated or previously associated with Liberty Media, which may lead to conflicting interests.
The members of our board of directors owe fiduciary duties to our stockholders. Dr. Evan Malone, a member of our board of directors, also serves as a director of Liberty Media and, as such, also owes fiduciary duties to Liberty Media’s stockholders. Therefore, Mr. Malone may have conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest with respect to matters involving or affecting Liberty Media. For example, there may be the potential for a conflict of interest if any conflict arises under the Tax Sharing Agreement or when we or Liberty Media look at acquisitions and other corporate opportunities that may be suitable for each company. Moreover, our Chairman of the board of directors, Gregory B. Maffei, who is a former president, chief executive officer and director of Liberty Media, and certain other of our directors may continue to own Liberty Media common stock, restricted stock units and options to purchase Liberty Media common stock. These ownership interests could create, or appear to create, potential conflicts of interest when these individuals are faced with decisions that could have different implications for us or Liberty Media. Any potential conflict that could qualify as a “related party transaction” (as defined in Item 404 of Regulation S-K) will be subject to review by an independent committee of the applicable company’s board of directors in accordance with its corporate governance guidelines. Any other potential that arise will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, keeping in mind the applicable fiduciary duties owed by the executive officers and directors of each company. From time to time, Liberty Media or its respective affiliates may enter into transactions with us and/or our subsidiaries or other affiliates. Although the terms of any such transactions or agreements will be established based upon negotiations between employees of the companies involved, there can be no assurance that the terms of any such transactions will be as to us, or our subsidiaries or affiliates as would be the case where the parties are completely at arms’ length.
Our directors and officers are protected from liability for a broad range of actions.
Delaware law permits limiting or eliminating the monetary liability of a director and, subject to certain limitations set forth in the DGCL, certain officers, to a corporation or its stockholders, except with regard to breaches of the duty of loyalty, acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or knowing violation of law, in the case of directors, unlawful payment of dividends or unlawful stock purchase or redemption, any transaction from which a director or officer derived an improper personal benefit, or, in the case of officers, any action by or in the right of the corporation. Our amended and restated charter eliminates the liability of its directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.
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Other Operational Risks
If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, our business could be harmed.
We believe that our success depends on our continued ability to attract and retain qualified management, sales, technical and other personnel. All of our employees, including our executive officers, are free to terminate their employment with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business may be difficult to replace.
Qualified individuals are in high demand, particularly in the media and technology industries and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain employees. If we are unable to attract and retain our key employees, we may not be able to achieve our objectives, and our business could be harmed.
Our facilities could be damaged by natural catastrophes or terrorist activities.
An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, fires, cyber-attack, terrorist attack, civil unrest or other catastrophic event could damage our data centers, studios, terrestrial repeater networks or satellite uplink facilities, interrupt our services and harm our business. We also have significant operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions can be caused or exacerbated by climate change.
Any damage to the satellites that transmit to our terrestrial repeater networks would likely result in degradation of the affected service for some SiriusXM subscribers and could result in complete loss of satellite radio service in certain or all areas. Damage to our satellite uplink facilities could result in a complete loss of our satellite radio service until we could transfer operations to suitable back-up facilities.
The unfavorable outcome of pending or future litigation and mass arbitrations could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
We are parties to several legal proceedings arising out of various aspects of our business, including possible class actions arising out of our marketing practices and governmental actions and possible class actions and mass arbitration demands arising from, among other issues, our pricing and cancellation practices. The outcome of these proceedings may not be favorable, and one or more unfavorable outcomes could have an adverse impact on our financial condition. See “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on our material legal proceedings.
We may be exposed to liabilities that other entertainment service providers would not customarily be subject to.
We design, establish specifications, source or specify parts and components, and manage various aspects of the logistics of the production of satellite radios and our apps. As a result of these activities, we may be exposed to liabilities associated with the design, manufacture and distribution of radios and apps that the providers of an entertainment service would not customarily be subject to, such as liabilities for design defects, patent infringement and compliance with applicable laws, as well as the costs of returned product.
Our business and prospects depend on the strength of our brands.
Maintaining and enhancing our brands is an important part of our strategy to expand our base of subscribers, listeners and advertisers. Our brands may be impaired by a number of factors, including service outages, data privacy and security issues and exploitation of our trademarks by others without permission. Our ability to maintain and enhance our brands also depends in part on our ability to continue to develop and provide an innovative and high-quality entertainment experience, which we may not do successfully.
