Sirius Awards Stern With Large Stock Payment

Sirius' recent successes are working to the benefit of shock jock Howard Stern. The satellite radio provider said on Tuesday that it had awarded him 22.1 million shares, valued at $82.9 million. The award of stock comes after the company again surpassed pre-Stern subscriber targets, a requirement for the awarding of stock as per his contract. Before Stern, the company had only projected 3.5 million subscribers by the end of last year. They finished the year with over six million.

Since the signing of Stern, Sirius's growth has been explosive, growing from just 600,000 subscribers. In 2005, shortly before he came on the air, he and his agent Don Buchwald were awarded 34.4 million shares for exceeding guidance at the end of that year. The targets have not been made public.