By Yinka Adegoke and Franklin Paul
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With only days to go until a critical deadline, Sirius XM Radio Inc
The talks are seen as a last-ditch attempt by Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin to stave off a takeover bid by Charles Ergen's EchoStar Corp
But analysts said Liberty, led by cable mogul John Malone, is unlikely to help the Sirius satellite radio service since that could complicate his own long-term satellite plans.
Liberty Media is in the process of splitting off most of its Liberty Entertainment
"We believe it is highly doubtful that Liberty makes an investment in or acquires Sirius," Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan wrote in a note Thursday. "Adding Sirius to (Liberty) would complicate any transaction with DirecTV."
Moreover, Eagan said DirecTV's management does not want Sirius, the biggest provider of satellite radio service with more than 19 million subscribers, combined with its operations.
"DirecTV certainly does not need it," he said. "Their operations lead the industry."
Sirius, EchoStar and DirecTV all declined comment. Liberty did not respond to requests for comment.
Sirius has hired law firm Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP as bankruptcy counsel and restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal to prepare for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the New York Times reported earlier this week.
The satellite radio company, faced with a slowdown in retail demand for its radios and the downturn in the automobile industry where it gains most of its new subscribers, must consider all options in an effort to control costs.
It is even trying to renegotiate some content deals, including contracts with Major League Baseball and Oprah Winfrey, according to a report on Business Week's website.
While analysts do not expect Malone to lend a hand to Karmazin, they find the idea of a tie-up between Ergen and Karmazin even harder to fathom.
The two veteran media executives have an adversarial history spanning back to 2004, when Karmazin was president of Viacom, which at the time owned the CBS television network.
Ergen was feuding with Viacom over the carriage of CBS stations on EchoStar's Dish Network satellite system.
At one point during the dispute, EchoStar pulled the plug on CBS stations in more than 1 million homes in 16 cities, including New York. While the dispute was eventually resolved, analysts suggest that bad blood may linger between them.
"If you step back and look at potential combination, (meshing) the personalities might seem to be a bigger issue than the businesses," said Barrington Research analyst James Goss.
(Reporting by Franklin Paul and Yinka Adegoke; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)