Pandora looking for buyers?

[uofmtiger]

Would be interesting if Microsoft bought them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/b...ave-held-talks-about-selling-itself.html?_r=0

 

[Darksyde]

It would suck if they changed the format .

 

[CKDC]

Microsoft would probably Zune-ify Pandora.

 

[Smitty43]

Man this sucks I listen to Pandora and it is my only music streaming that I do.. Oh well ain't nothing consistent but change! And sometimes change is a good thing!

 

[uofmtiger]

It would suck if they changed the format .

I hear ya. Pandora bought Rdio last year, so I was expecting changes to come at some point. Google and Apple already have their own thing going on in this market, so I don't think they would be interested in it. That leaves Microsoft, if it goes to someone that doesn't need it to produce a profit out of the gate.

Ideally, whoever buys it ( if that happens) would leave it as it is and resurrect Rdio. Not saying that will happen, but I prefer that to both Pandora and Rdio completely dying.

 

[Darksyde]

I like that I'm able to shuffle my Pandora radio stations , can't do that with google music or Spotify .

 

[rnorton]

Apple will probably buy it and kill it. It's their business model.

 

[CKDC]

Apple will probably buy it and kill it. It's their business model.

In an ideal world, anti-trust regulations would stop that from happening. Oh well, here we go into the political chat forum.

 

[ducati_EL34]

Apple will probably buy it and kill it. It's their business model.

"The company is spending heavily to attract users, and its ability to make money from those users may be waning. In the third quarter, Pandora lowered its full-year financial guidance, expecting its adjusted earnings to be $51 million to $56 million, down from the $75 million to $85 million it projected in the quarter before.

“It has lots of users but can’t grow revenue quickly enough,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. “It is another stumbling pioneer.”"

And an Apple acquisition would be worse than just dying off?

 

[uofmtiger]

Apple will probably buy it and kill it. It's their business model.

You mean like Pandora buying Rdio? Yeah, companies often buy businesses ( even failing businesses) so they can access trademarks, people with specific skills, etc. It is definitely something Apple has done, but they are far from being alone in those pursuits.

Pandora's price, according to articles, is down 60 percent since October and is down to 1.8 billion from 7 billion two years ago. They are dying on their own without Apple killing them directly. Keep in mind, Pandora is the one actively shopping for buyers.

If Apple buys them, it won't be because they want to kill a competitor. They would be better off buying Spotify (another business currently losing money at an accelerated rate) if that was their goal. If they bought Pandora it would be for the people/knowledge, great music engine technology, trademarks, etc.

I think Pandora would offer more value to Microsoft, but then again, I am not sure what Microsoft would bring to the table to pull Pandora or Rdio back up, but Cortana might be an avenue if they could figure out how to get it to work on iOS and/or Android.

 

[mech986]

Apple already has Beats Streaming and now Apple Music, which they are both monetizing. Apple has made profit improvements in those areas, although perhaps not as fast as Wall Street would like. If both Pandora and Spotify are making less money or losing money, what does that say about their business model and whether its viable long term? That's the problem with free or nearly free services, you can get users but how do you get revenue to keep your business going, let alone investing for the future? Twitter is having the same problem. Ad revenue is getting more difficult to come by since there are so many platforms out there vying for the same eyes and ears.

Apple's strength is the number of iOS platform users already out there who use the Apple ecosystem and are willing to pay for some of the apps that they use, Apple apps included. Unfortunately free or near free services find out eventually whether people are willing to pay for what they offer or just switch to another low cost service.

 

[Condorsat]

Bad time to sell ... they must be getting desperate.

It's like the old game show "Deal or No Deal" ... the time to sell your case is when your board still looks good (known as a players board).

When your board starts to look bad ... this fact is quickly picked upon by the Banker (... or potential buyers in Pandora's case).