Senate Chairman Kohl urges DOJ block XM-Sirius merger

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Kohl (D-WI) wrote the DOJ urging them to block the XM-Sirius merger.

It is an exceptionally persuasive and compelling letter that effectively eviscerates XM-Sirius' contention that satellite radio is not a separate market.

• The Senate antitrust experts have concluded it is a separate market, making this a classic attempt to merge to monopoly.

I believe this letter is a good "precursor" for what the DOJ will think and do.

This letter also reached the same conclusion I reached shortly after the merger was announced and which I blogged on in my previous post "XM-Sirius: The emperor has no clothes" 3-31-07.

As a fervent believer in free markets, I feel compelled to stand up to real attempts to monopolize markets and undermine competition.

• If the DOJ were somehow to fall asleep at their antitrust helm, and somehow allow XM-Sirius to become a new legal precedent for acceptable mergers, most any combination would then pass muster like:  
• Microsoft-Google,
• Intel-AMD,
• Walmart-Target,
• Cisco-Juniper...

I believe another pending merger, Google-DoubleClick, poses very substantial threats to competition online going forward.

• Stay tuned for a lot more on that one!