Pandora radio to go public with $100m target, 80m users
updated 06:40 pm EST, Fri February 11, 2011
Pandora goes for 100 million IPO
Internet radio's early competitor Pandora on Friday said it had put forward an SEC filing for an initial public offering of stock. The company said it hadn't determined the share price but in a disclosure suggested it wanted to raise as much as $100 million. It also didn't say when it expected the IPO to go live.
The offering could be a major turnaround for Pandora. It has fought to turn a profit for much of its life and lost $18 million during the first nine months of 2009 alone. It has quickly swung to almost break-even with just a $328,000 loss a year later. An IPO could quickly turn it profitable, as it made $89.2 million in revenue last year, $77 million of which was for ad-supported free listeners and the rest from its monthly subscriptions.
Pandora is limited to the US but has remained one of the best performing Internet radio stations in the world. It has owed much of this to its recommendation engine for similar music but also to getting Pandora into most smartphones and, most recently, partly integrated with Ford cars.
