The Justice Department has officially approved the merger of Sirius and XM - an unsurprising end result (Yankee Group predicted as such shortly after the announcement in 2007) to the merger that some expected to experience turblence since it was announced in February 2007. Claims that officials would be forced to endure hours of Britney Spears music if they failed to approve the deal remain unsubstantiated.

While the official merger leads to many expected questions: how will existing hardware be handled, what types of new packaging will be offered, will Howard Stern ever find new employers desperate enough to pay him $500M - its real impact is not on the satellite market and its 17M+ subscribers at all.

One of the primary arguments for the merger was that the Internet, digital audio players, and other emerging technologies not of the satellite radio variety represented viable alternatives and threats. Additionally, the DOJ is taking it on the word  of Sirius and XM that synergies in the merged satellite radio monopoly will lead to greater consumer choice and improved pricing - not a throttling of subscribers.

The acceptance of this argument will impact other regulated industries by presenting legal grounds for viewing emerging technology as via alternatives. Such a precedent could allow actions that otherwise may have been viewed as monopolistic behavior. Will DirecTV and Dish now be allowed to merge if they so choose? Will cable companies be allowed to gobble up more markets? Arguably, the internet poses a legitimate alternative to pay TV so old rules may no longer apply in the SiriuX world.

The long term implications of the merger will not be seen until the next controversial acquisition or merger is presented before congress. At that time, Congress will be forced to defend how monopolies can exist in one market but cannot in another. In the interim, technology continues to re-write the rules for what constitiutes a monopoly.