SiriusXM today announced that it’s acquiring internet music streaming company Pandora for $3.5 billion. It says that the Pandora brand and service will be retained after the acquisition so the service’s almost 70 million monthly active users don’t have anything to worry about right now. SiriusXM itself has some 36 million subscribers.
This acquisition is hardly surprising given that SiriusXM had invested $480 million in Pandora last year for a 19 percent stake in the company. It was first speculated at that time that SiriusXM could eventually buy the company outright.
That’s what has happened now. Pandora will thus join SiriusXM’s portfolio as its first proper streaming service which will complement all of its other radio services. SiriusXM says that this acquisition will create “the world’s largest audio entertainment company.”
With regards to the subscription price increase, the company has said that there will be no changes to any SiriusXM or Pandora subscriptions or services at this point in time. However, the same can’t be ruled out for some point down the line.
Absolutely nothing will be changed immediately after this acquisition so Pandora’s ad-supported streaming option will continue. The service’s 5.6 million paying members have nothing to worry about right now as well. SiriusXM has also clarified that ad-free content “has been and will continue” to be the main differentiator for its key service.
Filed in . Read more about Pandora. Source: blog.siriusxm