The chairman of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said Wednesday he remains “hopeful” that the company’s $5 billion acquisition by rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. will close this year, although he acknowledged that time is running short. At the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Chairman Gary Parsons said the Department of Justice will have to approve the acquisition within a week or 10 days for the deal to be completed in 2007.

Parsons said the companies have a “very strong economic justification on the record” for the combination, as well as a “very deep and very diverse group of supporters.”

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