“Corvex Management LP disclosed on Monday that it owns 9.9 percent of Pandora Media Inc and urged the internet music streaming company to explore a sale instead of pursuing a ‘costly and uncertain business plan,'” Liana B. Baker reports for Reuters.
“Corvex, a hedge fund run by Keith Meister, a protégé of billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, said it had met with the company’s management and had withdrawn a plan to replace some of its board members,” Baker reports. “However, it now believes Pandora should hire an investment bank to help the company explore its strategic options including a sale.”
“Pandora’s shares are down more than 25 percent in 2016 and more than 45 percent year-over-year. Corvex owns about 22.7 million shares in the company, making the hedge fund Pandora’s largest shareholder,” Baker reports. “Oakland, California-based Pandora has faced tough competition from music-streaming rivals such as Spotify, Apple Inc , Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com and has failed to turn an annual profit as a public company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We haven’t listened to Pandora since September 18, 2013, the day Apple launched iTunes Radio.
Corvex sees the writing on the wall.
We haven’t touched Pandora since the day we first launched iTunes Radio. This situation will soon be repeated by millions of iPhone, iPad, iPad mini, iPod touch, Apple TV, Mac, and Windows PC users. The pain looming for Pandora will be intense, especially as it quickly becomes a ghetto for Android settlers who simply do not buy products in the way that Mac and iOS users do. Music labels will take note and act accordingly. — MacDailyNews, September 17, 2013
SEE ALSO:
Pandora said to have held talks about selling the company – February 11, 2016
Apple Music takes a huge bite out of Pandora – October 23, 2015
Apple is going to put the hurt on Pandora – November 10, 2014
Analyst: Apple iTunes Radio hurting Pandora’s ability to attract new listeners – October 26, 2014
Despite critics, Apple’s Maps and iTunes Radio flourish – August 21, 2014
ESPN Radio and local NPR stations now available via Apple’s iTunes Radio – June 10, 2014
Apple’s iTunes Store passes 35 billion songs sold milestone, iTunes Radio now has 40 million listeners – May 29, 2014
Apple preps UK iTunes Radio launch – April 15, 2014
NPR brings live streaming news to Apple’s iTunes Radio, more channels on the way – March 24, 2014
Apple’s iTunes Radio already 3rd most popular music streaming service in USA – March 11, 2014
Parts of Apple’s iTunes Radio service flicker on in Australia, UK, and Canada – January 25, 2014
Pandora loses nearly 2 million active listeners following Apple’s iTunes Radio debut – November 5, 2013
Apple’s Eddy Cue ‘very pleased’ with iTunes Radio, looks to go international ASAP; more than 100 countries targeted – October 4, 2013
Pandora founder: Impact of Apple’s iTunes Radio ‘will be modest on Pandora’ – September 24, 2013
At this pace, iTunes Radio beats Pandora in less than a month – September 24, 2013
Pandora drops as much as 12% on Apple’s iTunes Radio competition – September 23, 2013
Apple releases iTunes 11.1 with iTunes Radio – September 18, 2013
Pandora: iTunes Radio roadkill – September 17, 2013
Apple’s iTunes Radio is going to put Pandora into a world of hurt – September 14, 2013
Anticipating customer surprise, Apple begins training support staff on iOS 7 and iTunes Radio – August 29, 2013
Pandora would be wise not to write-off Apple’s potent iTunes Radio – August 26, 2013
Apple’s iTunes Radio to debut in September with McDonald’s, Nissan, P&G, Pepsi sponsorships – August 21, 2013
Apple’s new iTunes Radio is designed to be the largest streaming radio service – July 13, 2013
Apple announces iTunes Radio – launches this fall – June 10, 2013
I always liked Pandora but I never got into streaming heavily enough tp stay with any of them.
Where my shop is located has really poor cell coverage and my internet is pretty slow anyway.
I ended up relying on a large mp3 collection and good old FM radio. I guess I’m old school by necessity more than choice lol
Pandora should have shopped themselves to one of their big competitors long ago.
They need a buyer who wants streaming radio and has another core business to rely on.
honestly i had completely forgotten about pandora till i saw this article. hadn’t thought of that app in at least a year. if its not apple music, only other service i hear people talk about is spotify
what happened to all the rabid Pandora touting Apple hating analysts now? LIKE…
2015 VERGE:
“It seems like a smart strategy, but when it comes to music streaming, it is looking like Apple waited too long to get into the game. ……
Let’s lay out just how large the head start its competitors have. Apple Music is essentially in fourth place, miles behind Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube, and all the companies ahead of Apple are only getting bigger and better.”
—–
from a stock and aapl investor point of view so many of these companies (including phone manufacturers, movie streaming etc) are ‘supposed’ to be according to analyst better than Apple yet as I’ve pointed out often these guys don’t make money and eventually they will dry up fighting Apple.
Companies like Xiaomi which make tens of millions in profit vs Apple’s thousands of millions are supposed to be ‘Apple killers’ yet analysts never explain how these guys are supposed to fund R&D, expansion, buying of strategic assets etc. to compete with Apple.
Now now Dave, that kind of right talk causes the One Note Joe’s out there to fall into a delirious tizzy of confusion as their made up world recedes further from the shores of reality.
They don’t have to spend any money on R&D. They just wait to see what Apple does and then copy them.
What? Pandora circling the music drain? Hard to fathom. NOT.
Personally I like slacker. It is programmed by real DJs who are Daimler with the type of music. I like that u can download stations to listen to without Internet.
I use that and Siriusxm sorry Apple Music iTunes Radio are not doing it for me. I never used pandora because no way to get rid of commercial. Plus it never picked the right music for me.
You can pay for Pandora and that would get rid of commercials.
Corvex, a hedge fund run by Keith Meister, a protégé of billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn… – – Oh, great. (0_o)
…it now believes Pandora should hire an investment bank to help the company explore its strategic options including a sale. – – AKA suicide. (o_0)
I still prefer Pandora, specifically because I learn new music via their service. I survive the ads and enjoy the tunes. I’ve often bought music specifically because I heard it on Pandora. I also champion Pandora specifically because the decrepit old RIAA and their flunkies have been trying to kill them off for years. Clearly, one of Pandora’s biggest problems is the exorbitant royalty fees, way beyond that of land radio, forced on them via the RIAA. I’d rather see the RIAA dead.
The moral of the story is never invest with Corvex Management LP.