UPDATED 11:43 EDT / JUNE 09 2017

APPS

Amid profitability woes, Pandora raises $480 million from SiriusXM

Pandora Media Inc. suspended its long-running funding negotiations with KKR & Co. LP Thursday to review an outside proposal about a “substantial minority investment.” That bid today turned out to be a $480 million cash offer from Sirius XM Holdings Inc. that the music streaming provider has decided to accept.

The investment will buy SiriusXM a 16 percent stake in Pandora and the right to appoint three board members, including a new chairman. This should give the radio giant a lot of influence over the company, but falls short of its original goal. The company had reportedly attempted to acquire Pandora last year but the talks fell through on price disagreements.

Today’s funding represents a good middle ground for both parties. SiriusXM will gain an indirect but significant presence in the fast-growing digital radio market, while Pandora can continue to operate independently under the leadership of founder Tim Westergren. The executive returned to the company last March to tackle its mounting losses, an effort that the new $480 million cash infusion should help a great deal.

SiriusXM’s investment is topped off by $200 million that Pandora stands to gain through the sale of Ticketfly to event promotion titan Eventbrite Inc. The transaction, which was announced in conjunction with the funding, is worth less than half the $450 million that it paid to acquire the ticket distribution service three years ago.

Still, Pandora’s newly bolstered war chest is nothing to sneeze at. The company divulged in a statement that the funds will be used to “sharpen [its] operational focus,” a push that will require a lot of work from Westergren and his team.

Pandora lost $132.3 million in the first quarter on revenue of $316 million. It’s trying to climb out of the red amid intense competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Apple Inc. and Spotify AB, which secured $1 billion in debt financing last year to fuel its growth. The Swedish streaming provider is among others investing in acquisitions, with its most recent purchase being a French machine learning startup called Niland.

Despite the competition, however, investors seem optimistic about Pandora’s prospects. The company’s stock price is currently up more than 4 percent.

Image: Pixabay

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