Music streaming service company Pandora (NYSE:$P) announced that it just recently confirmed an investment deal from satellite radio company SiriusXM (NASDAQ:$SIRI). SiriusXM will be making a $480 million strategic cash investment to Pandora. The deal came about after Pandora had rejected SiriusXM’s attempt to buy the entire company, according to sources. However, with the investment deal, the chairman of Pandora will now most likely be Jim Meyer, CEO of SiriusXM, or Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media.
It is good news for both companies, but especially for SiriusXM, as Meyer said Friday, “Pandora’s large user base and its ability to provide listeners with a personalized music experience are tremendous assets,” he said. “With its strong technology and new product offerings, we believe there are exciting opportunities for Pandora to accelerate its growth and increase value for Pandora and SiriusXM stockholders.”
As for Pandora, the investment from SiriusXM will allow it to make other more “targeted investments” that could benefit the company as well as allow it to continue to build on its reputation in the music/radio streaming industry.
As such, Pandora’s shares went up by 6% to $8.90 on Friday morning following the announcement of the deal, whereas the shares of SiriusXM went down into negatives. Shares of Liberty Media, the majority owner of SiriusXM, did not change much.
Besides cash investment, part of the deal also specifies that three people chosen by SiriusXM will be on the Pandora board — one of which will be the chairman of the board, according to press release of the investment deal. The deal was made in lieu of the pushback of a $150 million investment deal from KKR (NYSE:$KKR), a private equity firm, to Pandora.
As a result, if the KKR investment deal with Pandora does not close by February 1, 2018, the deal between SiriusXM and Pandora may be terminated.
While Pandora is one of the most popular apps in the Apple App Store, there are strong competitions for music streaming from the likes of Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon. At the end of the first quarter of 2017, active listeners of Pandora were 76.7 million — a bit down from the 79.4 million listeners in 2016.
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