After years of negotiations, SiriusXM announced it will acquire Pandora, which will result in the formation of the largest global audio entertainment company. The deal was closed through a nearly $3.5 billion all-stock transaction.
“We have long respected Pandora and their team for their popular consumer offering that has attracted a massive audience, and have been impressed by Pandora’s strategic progress and stronger execution,” said SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer. “We believe there are significant opportunities to create value for both companies’ stockholders by combining our complementary businesses … Together, we will deliver even more of the best content on radio to our passionate and loyal listeners, and attract new listeners, across our two platforms.”
According to the announcement, there will be no immediate change to the user experiences for SiriusXM and Pandora subscribers. SiriusXM’s currently supports 36 million North American subscribers and over 23 million annual trial listeners. Pandora currently provides online radio streaming to over 70 million monthly active users.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in our efforts to lead in digital audio,” said Pandora CEO Roger Lynch. “Together with SiriusXM, we’re even better positioned to take advantage of the huge opportunities we see in audio entertainment, including growing our advertising business and expanding our subscription offerings. The powerful combination of SiriusXM’s content, position in the car, and premium subscription products, along with the biggest audio streaming service in the U.S., will create the world’s largest audio entertainment company.”
