Howard Stern Paid $82.9M by Sirius
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Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., whose shares plunged 47% last year, paid radio host Howard Stern $82.9 million for exceeding subscriber growth targets during his first year at the pay-radio network.
Mr. Stern and his agent will get a total of 22.1 million shares, as specified by Mr. Stern’s October 2004 contract, New York-based Sirius said today in a statement. The company ended 2006 with 6 million customers, beating the average analyst estimate of 3.5 million at the time of the agreement, Sirius said.
The award was made under Mr. Stern’s five-year $500 million contract with Sirius, a deal that represented more than seven times Sirius’s 2004 revenue. While Mr. Stern helped Sirius beat initial subscriber targets, the company, which ranks second to XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., has struggled to meet more recent goals
“You can certainly attribute the better performance in terms of subscribers to him,” an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in New York, David Bank, said.
