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Reuters General/ ­- Article, Ter, 17 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Howard Stern lawsuit vs Sirius XM
Radio thrown out
By Jonathan Stempel and Karen Freifeld Tue Apr 17,
2012 6:54pm EDT (Reuters) ­- A judge has dismissed
radio DJ Howard Stern's $330 million lawsuit accusing
Sirius XM Radio of failing to pay him stock awards he
was due for helping the dominant U.S. satellite radio
company exceed growth targets. New York State
Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick in Manhattan
said Stern and his agent Don Buchwald were bound by
the language of the 2004 agreement that brought the
now 58­-year­-old "shock jock" to what became Sirius
XM from traditional radio. "While it may be true that
Stern and Buchwald hoped and expected to reap the
benefits from any significant growth that Sirius
experienced after they entered into the agreement,
that subjective expectation cannot suffice to override
the clear, unambiguous language of the agreement,"
Kapnick wrote. Seth Rothman, a lawyer who
represents Stern, did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. Sirius spokesman Patrick Reilly
had no immediate comment. The case centered on
whether to count subscribers of the former XM Satellite
Radio Inc, which Sirius bought in 2008, to help
determine performance­-based awards for Stern's
production company, One Twelve Inc, and fees for
Buchwald. Sirius ended 2011 with 21.9 million
subscribers, up from 3.3 million at the end of 2005,
when the company was known as Sirius Satellite
Radio Inc. Stern moved his radio show to Sirius on
January 9, 2006. He renewed his contract for five
years in December 2010, only to file his lawsuit three
months later. According to the lawsuit, Stern's
presence helped New York­-based Sirius exceed
subscriber targets by at least 2 million in each of
several years beginning in 2006, triggering a new
stock award every time. Sirius awarded $75 million to
One Twelve and $7.5 million to Buchwald after the first
year. Kapnick wrote that had all the performance
awards been triggered, Sirius could have owed One
Twelve another $300 million and Buchwald another
$30 million. But Kapnick agreed with Sirius that XM
subscribers did not count toward the subscriber base
used to determine the awards. She said the only
contractual provision that even mentioned or referred
to XM or a potential merger called for Sirius to pay $25
million to One Twelve and $2.5 million to Buchwald if
the XM merger took place. These payments were
made, she said. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld and
Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by
Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and John
Wallace)
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