By Isaiah Mendez
Pandora Media, Inc.
2101 Webster Street
16th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
510.451.4100
About the Company [1]:
Pandora Internet Radio is an internet music streaming service that is only available in the United States, New Zealand and Austrailia. It provides both A major competitor with other internet radio providers such as Clear Channel Communications, SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. and CBS Radio Inc., Pandora is known for it’s Music Genome Project, which creates customized playlists for users by analyzing the musical characteristics of songs that they listen to. The internet service can be accessed using a free account or by purchasing a monthly subscription. Pandora Media Inc. was founded in Oakloand, California by Tim Westergren in the year 2000 at the same time as the the Music Genome Project. Pandora currently has additional corporate locations in Houston, TX and in New York City.
Key Executives [2]:
Brian McAndrews – Chief Executive Officer, President & Chairman
Tim Westergren – Chief Strategy Officer & Founder
Tom Conrad – Chief Technology Officer & Executive Vice President of Product
Mike Herring – Chief Financial Officer
John Trimble – Chief Revenue Officer
Delida Costin – General Counsel
Simon Fleming-Wood – Chief Marketing Office
Financial Information [3]:
As of August 22nd, 2013, Pandora Media Inc reported a successful financial year. For the 2Q14 financial period, Pandora made a total revenue of $157.4, which is a $31.9 million increase from the previous fiscal quarter ($128.5 million). Their advertising revenue for the fiscal period was a whopping $33.5 million, which included a $4.7 million in revenue relating to their subscription return reserve.
News:
- Insider Selling
The Executive VP of Pandora, Thomas Conrad sold 55,000 shares of the company’s stock for a total of $1,677,500.00 [4] in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th of 2013. After this transaction, the executive VP now owns 529,190 shares of the company’s stock. The disclosure of the sale is located in a document filed by the Securities & Exchange Commission [5]. In an official research note to investors on Tuesday, November 19th, analysts at Piper Jaffray Cos., reiterated an “overweight” rating on Pandora’s shares, making note of the price target of these shares from $27.00 to $37.00.
- Pandora says iTunes Radio not affecting business…
Even if the numbers seem to report otherwise. According to an Apple Insider article from November 5th of this year, Pandora lost 1.8 million listeners to Itunes Radio shortly after it was first deployed [6]. At a recent iPad event that took place on October 22, chief executive Tim Cook noted that Apple’s iTunes Radio service had a total of 20 million users on it’s debut [7] , who played a collective 1 billion songs.
Initially, before iTunes Radio was launched, Mike Herring of Pandora called the service a “credible threat [8], while at the same time showing optimism about Pandora’s continued dominance in the internet radio business. Interestingly enough, Pandora listening hours actually grew by 9 percent during the same month that iTunes Radio launched, which explains why they do not view it as a threat to business.
For one, this is believed to be caused by Pandora’s continual growth as a station. The company says that it is looking to expand it’s operations beyond it’s current boundaries of the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand in the new future, and could use some of the close to $400 million riased in September stock offering for the proposed expansion.
Another reason Pandora is not considering iTunes a credible threat may be related to the fact that they had recently waived their 40-hour-listening-cap for free users as of September of this year [9], a very bold step the company took as a precautionary business measure before iTunes Radio was released.
- Oakland Raiders get their own Pandora station
Oakland Raiders
According to an article from the San Jose Mercury News, The Oakland Raiders now how their own channel on Pandora Radio as of November 15th of this year [10]. The name of the new station is the Raider Nation Station, which plays a mix of Raiders-themed songs chosen by members of the football team themselves. As a part of the great endeavor, five Raiders team members spent time at Pandora headquarters, which is also located in Oakland, California, in order to get a behind the scenes look on how Pandora allows users to customize their own music experiences. The five players who took part in this– Tyvon Branch, Rashad Jennings, Marquette King, Rod Streater and Jared Veldheer- also recorded spots that are to be played on the Raider Nation Station.
Sources:
[2]: http://investor.pandora.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=227956&p=irol-govManage
[3]: http://investor.pandora.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=227956&p=quarterlyearnings
[5]: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1230276/000123027613000168/xslF345X01/edgar.xml
[8]: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/16/apples-itunes-radio-is-credible-threat-says-pandora-cfo
[9]: http://www.webpronews.com/pandora-lifts-40-hour-per-month-streaming-cap-2013-08
[10]: http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_24532234/oakland-raiders-get-own-pandora-station