• Cnet, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:15 PM

In his keynote speech at the Media & Money Conference in New York City on Tuesday, Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin let loose with some boastful predictions about the future of his media company-something you don't hear a lot of these days. Karmazin claimed his company was perfectly suited to weather-even thrive in-the economic downturn.

"I think it's very clear that we will be the most successful company in the audio entertainment industry," he said. "I know certainly, as ranked by revenue, we'll be there soon. Now we just need to grow our free cash flow and demonstrate that."

He criticized Wall Street for being short-sighted in the companies it rewards, namely those that have great cash flow and balance sheets-two qualifiers that don't yet apply to the newly merged radio properties. But he said regardless of what happens to the economy, satellite radio will continue to sign new subscribers, which will ultimately justify the massive start-up costs of recent years.

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