Sirius Ropes In Disney Streaming Veteran To Compete With Spotify

Satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Holdings Inc SIRI roped in the top architect of The Walt Disney Co DIS streaming service to help it broaden its appeal to audiences outside the car, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

• Joe Inzerillo, who, as EVP and CTO of Walt Disney's streaming unit, played a vital role in the creation and launch of the Disney + platform, is joining Sirius XM in January as chief product and technology officer.
• "Joe brings significant experience building and leading innovative digital platforms, and he will be instrumental as SiriusXM continues to evolve," said Sirius XM CEO Jennifer Witz.
• "The Sirius acquisition of Pandora was really smart, and I think not fully capitalized on yet," Inzerillo said, adding that there are more ways to explore bundling up the company's content. "I don't think we've fully capitalized on how to put that all together."
• With 34.1 million total subscribers at Q3 end, Sirius aims to compete with Spotify Technology SA SPOT. Spotify boasts 381 million monthly active users and 172 million paying subscribers, which recently passed Apple Inc AAPL to become the top podcast platform in the U.S. by listeners.
• Eight-year veteran Jim Cady, Sirius XM's innovation chief who has been serving as interim head of product development, will retire after working with Inzerillo through the end of February, the company said.
• Inzerillo said that with nearly 120 million subscribers worldwide, Disney+ had hit its stride, and he wanted to move on to new challenges as his role there was becoming more operational.
• Disney will likely name a successor to Inzerillo.
• Price Action: SIRI shares traded higher by 1.95% at $6.28 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.