Howard Stern’s production company suing Sirius XM The King of All Media is allegedly getting the royal shaft from Sirius XM Radio. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Howard Stern's production company and longtime agent charge the satellite radio company that Stern put on the map has been stiffing them out of big bucks, because they've "unilaterally decided that Stern has been paid enough." The filing says that Sirius has failed to pay Stern's company, One Twelve, escalating stock awards for the past three years despite having exceeded their subscriber goals by several million subscribers. The timing of the suit is surprising, because Stern just recently re-upped with the company he turned into a powerhouse, and was promoting Sirius's mobile applications on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" last week. Stern agreed to sign with Sirius in 2004, when they "courted Stern aggressively, offering his production company, One Twelve, an incentive-laced deal that, among other things, promised Stern an opportunity to share in Sirius's success," the suit says. The company paid Stern's company the bonus for for 2006 and 2007, but did not during 2008 and 2009, after it bought rival XM radio and was near bankruptcy from growing pains, the filing says. "Stern and Buchwald decided not to demand payment while Sirius was struggling," because they "did not want to take any action that might cause the company further financial distress or impair its ability to attract financing," the suit says. The company soon got back on solid financial footing, and by the end of 2010, had over 20 million subscribers - 8 million over the estimate it had told Stern it would pay the bonus on. With the company rolling in money, Stern and Buchwald said they wanted their stock awards - but the company's vice-president told them "no such compensation was due." Corporate told the pair they hadn't met the targeted subscriber goal because they were counting XM listeners in their total instead of just Sirius listeners. The suit says that under the terms of their deal, the XM listeners count, and Sirius has to pay up. I listen to Howard probably daily for at least a little while on Sirius. He still has his moments. However, he and Robin have completely "gone Hollywood." Instead of mocking celebrities Howard kisses their asses and defends them to the death. He's even now best buddies with Regis (quite a change from the Private Parts book where he called Regis a deadbeat dad scumbag). The only celebrity he still feuds with is Leno (like nearly every comedian out there-really edgy, Howard). And, of course, he spends a lot of time bragging about marrying a model and taking her to celebrity fundraisers. Robin, who was always a bit of a pompous scold, is now practically Kaballah-era Madonna. She goes on about Vegan diets, native American healers, her charities and her efforts to land a CNN talk show like Joy Behar's for herself. I don't think he could go back to "regular" radio now if he wanted since he's completely shed that common man persona that his blue collar K-rock listeners identified with.
Hmm, it is odd if it's not some publicity thing as he was quite pleased just last week. Not to say, shit can't happen but damn, that's sudden.
That's why I stopped listening to him about 7 years ago. Considering he gets paid tens of millions of dollars a year and actually has more days off than work days I don't think he is going to garner much sympathy. Yeah and landing Beth O was quite a score. Right up there with getting Giselle Bundchen or Brooklyn Decker.
Why does this have anything to do with whether Stern deserves "sympathy" or is still any good at his show? Sirius agreed to pay him so much money. As a favor to them, he opted not to take his cut of profits for a couple years. But now it's time to pay up since they're profitable again. Trying to get out of it by excluding the XM merger is ridiculous. The agreement is based on the number of subscribers to the service. A subscriber is a subscriber is a subscriber--Sirius is just trying to split hairs so they don't have to pay. Stern has a right to be pissed and to seek his due.
Exactly. Sirius is trying to bite the hand that fed them in those very shaky early years. I'm not a big fan of Howard any more, but that money is his, and they need to pay up. Hell, I'd be upset too, particularly if I gave them a huge break when they were financially insecure. Talk about "no good deed"!
I guess because the topic opened the conversation up. And it just shows that Stern continues to be controversial (if in a different fashion). I don't know if he's gone Hollywood - I've heard him make some pretty strong statements about people like Sheen and Jay Leno and politicians. And I've heard them make some very good conversation about a number of topics. Stern has never been the "let's diss celebrities" show. Is it possible, to quote an earlier post, that he's best buds with Regis because Regis hasn't done anything particularly stupid lately? Alex
Appellate court denies Howard Stern $300M bonus he claims he's owed from the Sirius-XM merger: Howard Stern cannot collect the king’s ransom he says he’s entitled to from Sirius XM Radio, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. Unless he can find a different theory under which to proceed, I'd say Stern's lawsuit is effectively dead. This was a unanimous decision from the appeals court and it upheld a "summary judgement" ruling, meaning that the lower court dismissed his case without even needing a trial. Both the lower court and the appeals court held that a "plain reading" of the contract meant that Stern's claims were invalid. I wonder if he'll reconsider taking over for Fallon now?
So much this. SiriusXM is paying Howard Stern millions of dollars to be a radio part-timer and sue the company. That's why they are an embarrassingly poorly-run company.
300M! I think you kind of need to be someone who still would work after that to be in a position to get it in the first place. If I somehow made a few million I'd be done.
Yeah. Radio Exec: "John, here's your yearly salary." Me: "This is 7 million dollars." Radio Exec: "Yes... that's what we agreed upon." Me: "So this is all mine?" Radio Exec:"Well, yes, that's your net income for this year." Me: "*squee*" Radio Exec: "What was that?" Me: "I quit! Bye! Get someone else! It's a tropical island for me! Woohoo!"