Subscription radio company SiriusXM says it's buying music streaming service Pandora Media Inc. in a stock deal valued at about $3.5 billion that'll allow it to expand its service beyond cars and into homes and other mobile areas. Pandora stockholders will receive 1.44 newly issued SiriusXM shares for each Pandora share they own, the AP reports. Sirius XM Holdings Inc. has more than 36 million subscribers in North America, while Pandora has more than 70 million monthly active users. If the deal goes through, SiriusXM will become the biggest audio-entertainment company in the world, with more than $7 billion in combined revenue expected this year, per CNBC.
Pandora has a "go-shop" period in which it can solicit other offers from third parties; one analyst tells CNBC that while he wouldn't rule out a higher bid, he thinks "Apple and Spotify have had a chance to look at Pandora already." Both companies' boards have approved the transaction, which is expected to close in 2019's first quarter. It still needs approval from Pandora shareholders. Shares of Pandora, based in Oakland, Calif., jumped more than 8% in Monday premarket trading; SiriusXM's stock declined 4%. Sirius also recently entered into a partnership with Netflix to launch a comedy channel on Sirius featuring material from comedians who have original content on Netflix; that channel is set to launch in January.
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