[ad_1]
SiriusXM and Pandora announced plans to acquire before the opening of the stock market. SiriusXM proposes to acquire Pandora for $ 3.5 billion in shares, or $ 10.14 per share. Pandora would continue to exist as an independent service.
For Pandora shareholders, this offer represents a premium of 13.8% over the volume-weighted average price of the last 30 days. The Pandora Board of Directors and the SiriusXM Board of Directors both approved the plan.
But the transaction will not happen right away. As part of the agreement, Pandora has negotiated a "go-shop" offer, which means that Pandora's board can still evaluate other offers. The acquisition is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2019.
The announcement says that SiriusXM plans to use both services to promote the other service. For example, you can see references to SiriusXM broadcasts while listening to Pandora. And SiriusXM hosts could suggest downloading the Pandora mobile application.
The company also plans to create subscription plans that can include SiriusXM radios and a premium Pandora subscription. SiriusXM also plans to make you listen to Pandora in your car because SiriusXM is already widely available in American cars.
Pandora shares are currently up 8.58% to $ 10.65 in terms of pre-market trading. SiriusXM shares are currently trading at $ 6.89 (down 1.29%) in pre-market transactions.
Pandora is a public company since 2011 but has constantly lost money. The company bet early on music streaming with a smart radio format based on the interests and innovative. That was before Spotify, before Apple Music, before SoundCloud, before smartphones.
While Pandora currently has more than 70 million active listeners per month, the vast majority of them are not premium subscribers. Pandora has only 6 million paying subscribers – Spotify has 83 million paying subscribers. Paid subscribers tend to increase average revenue per user. But the company has never really understood how to convert these free users into subscribers.
Source link
