XM CEO Hugh Panero steps down

Word just hit the street that XM CEO Hugh Panero will be leaving the satellite radio provider in August, and the current president and COO, Nate Davis will be taking his place. This isn't exactly surprising news if you take a look at the recent business the company has been doing. First there's the XM / Sirius merger, of course, which has taken longer to complete than any other in FCC history, then there's the outages, subscriber backlash over programming, patent lawsuits, copyright lawsuits, and of course, the much-loved CEO name-calling. Really, who could blame the man from wanting to get away from the inevitable spit-roast someone was about to make of him? Of course, we've had our eye on Panero for some time now, and it seems possible that a change of leadership may be just what the satellite kingpin needs right now.

[Via Orbitcast]

[derek @ Jul 24th 2007 6:16PM]

he is one of the biggest idiots in history

[Ted Brown @ Jul 24th 2007 6:53PM]

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize this article was referring to Mel Karmazin.

[derek @ Jul 24th 2007 7:01PM]

I did say "one of", didn't I?

[dougwperry @ Jul 24th 2007 6:18PM]

Davis was President and COO of XO Communications from late 1999 through early 2003. Ask anyone in the telecom business and you realize this guy is an absolute black hand of death. I wouldn't invest in any company run by Davis...

[Jeratain @ Jul 24th 2007 7:09PM]

I guess this is good news considering I just ordered an XM receiver for my car.

[alf @ Jul 24th 2007 7:11PM]

Every time I read this guy's name, I keep thinking of the words Big Sandwich.

[DaMaDo @ Jul 24th 2007 9:29PM]

I lol'd =)

[Z @ Jul 25th 2007 3:29PM]

LOL! I thought the same thing. :0

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 24th 2007 11:04PM]

Golden Parachute

[Z @ Jul 25th 2007 3:24PM]

Love the photo. He looks like he's reciting Shakespeare: "To beeee, or NOT to be! THAT... is the question!"

[Patrick Weir @ Jul 25th 2007 4:50PM]

I can't belive that no one has mentioned that alot of the problems with this merger stem around the controversy of Howard Stern being on Sirius . Its common knowledge the NAB has been out for Stern since back when he was on terestrial radio.. before stern went to Sirius no one cared at all about satellite radio. I am not saying this is all to do with him but if stern wasn't on satellite this merger would have happened in record time.