Using Affirmative Action To Crash A Merger

Multimillionaire entrepreneur, Chester Davenport, has launched an attempt to secure a business position from the proposed XM and Sirius Satellite Radio merger. Mr. Davenport is attempting to use affirmative action to force a combined XM and Sirius Satellite Radio to award his company, Georgetown Partners LLC, a lease for 20% of the broadcast channels of the combined XM-Sirius.

Mr. Davenport wants the Federal Communications Commission to set conditions for the union that would establish a new, minority-controlled satellite radio broadcaster that would be controlled by his company Georgetown Partners LLC.

Davenport argued that a merged XM/Sirius threatened minority voices in broadcasting. "Minority programmers today have two completely independent alternatives to attain national programming reach," the statement observed. "However, in the event that the proposed merger is approved without appropriate conditions, there will be but a single entity in control of all 300+ nationwide radio broadcast channels. Failure to obtain carriage through the single licensee, no matter the reason, would preclude nationwide coverage and the consequent ability to aggregate niche audiences."

This is not the first time Davenport has used affirmative action to enter a proposed business merger, according to The New York Times. Davenport used this very same tactic to enter  a number of business mergers, including getting a piece of the Ameritech Corporation's $3.3 billion sale of half of its wireless telephone business in the 90's.

''I think if I were white, I would own one of these damn telephone companies, O.K.?'' Mr. Davenport told the NY Times in  a 1999 interview. ''All the time I've spent here, whatever money I have now, if I were white, doing everything I've done, I would have 100 times more money than I have now, O.K.?''

I do believe that Mr.Davenport would have done better over the years if he was give the access to capital like many white business men have but there are also many black business men who do not have Mr.Davenport's access topolitical and business connections, therefore we are force to find other mean to build our business'.

When people like Mr.Davenport continue to use the affirmative action card to accomplish business objectives it makes it that much harder for the rest of us black entrepreneurs to be taken seriously. I do feel that there are many road blocks to black entrepreneurs but all entrepreneurs regardless of race have road blocks.

Source: arstechnica.com