Sirius XM And Ford Expand Deal - Seeking Alpha

Sirius XM (SIRI) and Ford (F) announced today that the companies are expanding their current deal to bring Sirius XM Internet Radio into Ford dashboards, as well as a change to the promotional subscription being offered to consumers when they buy a new car.

When most people think of Sirius XM, they imagine music and radio programming delivered over satellite. There are many advantages to this type of delivery. The company can broadcast to the entire country and can offer a wide variety of radio programs in a single service. A disadvantage is that the satellite communication is a one-way pipe and consumer interaction and customization is limited. Sirius XM Internet Radio solves this drawback of satellite delivery by utilizing cellular signals to create a more robust service. Essentially, we have a hybrid system that brings the best attributes of streaming with the best attributes of satellite delivery together. I covered the concept of what this might look like a couple of months ago in an article titled, "Sirius XM and Satellite Radio 3.0."

With the announcement today, the hybrid system I call Satellite Radio 3.0 is much more of a reality. Ford is the first car maker to take this bold step. The technology is powered by the Ford Sync system. Consumers will now be able to access On-Demand programming, and customize the user experience in ways that are certain to keep people coming back and tuning in for more.

"SiriusXM Internet Radio's MySXM and On Demand features are entering the car alongside satellite radio for the first time, enhancing the SiriusXM listening experience by giving Ford customers using SYNC AppLink the ability to hear personalized music channels and programming when they want it, while continuing to enjoy the seamless nationwide coverage provided by live satellite radio," said Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM. "We are excited that Ford sees the advantage of being the first automaker to give its customers easy, safe access to our unparalleled audio entertainment through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and satellite radio in the connected car."

The second big boost in the announcement today may not be immediately apparent, but will help the bottom line. Ford has long offered 6 months of Sirius XM in a promotional package to people buying new Ford vehicles. The change is the promotional subscription is now a higher tier subscription that includes Internet streaming. Now, at the end of a promotional period the company does not need to "up-sell" the consumer on a higher priced package. They can use the higher priced package as a starting point. This can increase revenue and by extension help the bottom line. I covered this in detail in an article titled, "Sirius XM Finds A Way To Increase Revenue." I highly recommend that readers take a look at that article because these deals will become more and more prevalent over the course of the next year.

Clearly, in the face of increasing competition, which now includes the likes of Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL), Sirius XM needs to be at the top of its game. It is apparent that the company is taking steps to stay on top. Getting a name like Ford to buy into the concept is great news for Sirius XM investors.

I currently carry a $3.75 price target on Sirius XM and the equity is trading at less than $3.50.

Disclosure: I am long SIRI. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. I have no position in Ford (More...)

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1512332-sirius-xm-and-ford-expand-deal?source=feed

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Reports: Hernandez to be arrested

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Warren Sapp and Michael Strahan do not like each other. When they were active players, Sapp reacted to Strahan breaking the single-season sack record by saying there should be an asterisk next to his record because Brett Favre laid down for the final sack. Strahan responded that there should be a McDonald?s next to Sapp?s house because Sapp is fat. That kind of verbal sniping has continued through the years, and kept going this year when Sapp was voted into the Hall of Fame and Strahan was voted out.

Now Sapp is saying that Strahan should stay out of the Hall of Fame. And Sapp says that if the Hall of Fame Selection Committee wants to put in a good pass rusher, it should look to his own former teammate Simeon Rice over Strahan.

?Simeon was a better rusher than Michael Strahan any day of the week and twice on Sunday,? Sapp told the Tampa Tribune.

Rice was an excellent pass rusher, a three-time Pro Bowler who had double-digit sacks in eight different seasons and 122 sacks in his career, the 13th-highest career total since the NFL started counting sacks in 1982. But was he really a better rusher than Strahan, who in addition to being the single-season record holder is No. 5 in career sacks, with 141.5? According to Sapp, yes.

Sapp says that Rice routinely beat opposing left tackles, while Strahan had an easier job facing right tackles.

?[Rice] didn?t rush the worst lineman,? Sapp said. ?You know the right tackle is the worst of the five. Strahan played right end his first four years. When they were putting the label on him as a bust, they put ?B-U-S . OK, let?s transition him on the other side and see if he can play in his fourth year.? They put him at right end and he couldn?t do it, so they moved him to the weak guy. One-on-one with the [Eagles right tackle] Jon Runyans for eight quarters every year. Sim won?t ever have his name brought up [for the Hall of Fame], and that?s a shame. He?s one of the best pass rushers I?ve ever encountered in my life.?

And, at least in Sapp?s mind, a better pass rusher than Strahan.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/20/report-aaron-hernandez-likely-to-be-arrested/related/

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Skype Brings Free Video Messaging Out Of Preview, Redefines ?Visual Voicemail'

Skype has just announced that the previously beta video messaging feature it's been testing is now a proper release feature of its Skype applications for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Video messaging on Skype simply allows users to record a message for a contact to be viewed later, sort of like a video voicemail, instead of requiring that any real-time communication shenanigans happen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CiebPRzKdOU/

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DNC Police Report Raises Eyebrows (ABC News)

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Seth Rogen Gets Graphic When Spilling Secret 'This Is The End' Cameo

The movie's co-writer tells MTV News about the magic cameo in the apocalyptic comedy.
By Todd Gilchrist

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709018/this-is-the-end-seth-rogen-secret-cameo.jhtml

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Medieval bones yield 1000-year-old leprosy genome

Mass graves of medieval leper colonies have yielded the oldest-ever full genome sequence of a human pathogen. The achievement opens the way for studies of even older leprosy bacteria and similarly ancient strains of tuberculosis ? work that could reveal how the diseases became plagues, and perhaps help efforts to control and eradicate them.

About 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy each year. When untreated, as it was in the Middle Ages, the disease leaves telltale lesions in the bones of its victims. This signature allowed Johannes Krause of the University of T?bingen in Germany and his colleagues to identify five skeletons between 600 and 1000 years old, from mass graves in the UK, Sweden and Denmark, that contained DNA of Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium that causes the disease.

In fact, the bones yielded much more bacterial DNA than the researchers had expected. Krause says that mycobacteria have waxy cell walls that act "like a treasure box", preserving DNA exceptionally well.

The researchers pulled the ancient bacterial DNA out of the bones by using an array of short sequences from modern M.?leprae, which bound to matching ancient DNA. They were then able to reconstruct the ancient bacterium's entire genome and compare it with sequences of 11 modern M.?leprae strains from different regions of the world. The resulting evolutionary tree suggested that the strains began to diverge several thousand years ago.

That divergence probably began shortly after M.?leprae entered humans from another species, probably an African primate, says Anne Stone at Arizona State University in Tempe, who was not involved in the research. She recently sequenced an M.?leprae genome from a captive West African mangabey monkey and found it was very similar to human strains.

Primate pool

Stone now wants to sequence M.?leprae from ancient human remains and from other primates to see where it originated, how it spread from one species to another and whether this is still happening. One possibility is that non-human primates are a reservoir of the bacterium, occasionally passing it to people. This would hinder efforts to eradicate leprosy.

Both Krause and Stone also want to extend similar studies to tuberculosis, which kills some 1.4 million people each year. Stone is already attempting to sequence ancient M.?tuberculosis from human skeletons. However, it is more difficult to spot in historical remains than leprosy, because untreated TB generally kills a person before it can leave marks in bones.

The researchers hope to learn how M.?tuberculosis and the human immune system have evolved to fight one another. For instance, some research has suggested that tuberculosis strains are specific to different human populations in different parts of the world. Ancient bacterial genomes might reveal why these strains split apart centuries ago and how each adapted to its specific human population. This could aid the development of vaccines that would cover every strain.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1238286

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