Pandora IPO A Success?
The trading day is almost over, and already the Pandora (NYSE:P) IPO will be viewed as a success by some, and a failure by others even before the ticker tapes from a day of trading get swept up. I can already see the debates raging on as Pandora fans clash with fans of other radio services. On its face, it would have to be considered successful in that it was only 1 month ago that Pandora was talking about an IPO share price between $7 and $9.
It seems like each week there are satellite radio fans wanting to debate whether the Internet radio provider is competition, or even whether or not it should be classified as radio. The answer…..of course it is radio. It is not a list of songs that a user bought and is now shuffling, and it curate music for you. Yes, it uses your input to influence what it plays for you, but is that so far removed from traditional or satellite radio getting listener input to determine the top songs in the country?
I published an article on Seeking Alpha, “Pandora’s IPO: Wait And See“, outlining some potential positives as well as pitfalls for Pandora, as well as some of the similarities between Pandora and their quest to get to profits like Sirius XM already has. My take was that the stock would spike over $20, which it did, and that perhaps the best course of action was to let the equity settle down, and wait and see. As of this writing the stock is just above $18 per share.
In an interview with Billboard Pandora’s Tim Westergren stated this in reference to the Pandora critics:
“We think we’ve built a business with a lot of potential and are very confident about that. We’ve had naysayers before. The company has benefited from a really clear ability to focus. We for years have kept our eyes fixed on the horizon and not gotten distracted. That’s not going to change. We’re confident about the business that we have. We’ll let our business do the talking.”
Westergren also addressed the advertising model, the subscription model, and of course royalties. He noted that they did not participate in the last royalty board review, but would be an active participant in the next one. One key point is that Pandora would like to see more parity in the process. That would likely be a healthy thing for everyone.
In the end was the IPO a success? I would say yes, at least for now. The real story of success or failure will come in the weeks and months that follow. It went public at $16 and is still trading above that level, so day one gets a thumbs up.
Position – Long Sirius XM, No Position Pandora
“We think we’ve built a business with a lot of potential and are very confident about that. We’ve had naysayers before. The company has benefited from a really clear ability to focus. We for years have kept our eyes fixed on the horizon and not gotten distracted. That’s not going to change. We’re confident about the business that we have. We’ll let our business do the talking.”
So . . . “Mel is a Salesman” (as you have derisively referred to him on numerous occasions) . . . but Tim Westergren is not?
btw, I agree that the IPO is a huge success; no doubt they did a brilliant pump-job. Lets see how long the honeymoon lasts.
Question: Why do you reference the Seeking Alpha article yet provide no link?
Roadkill….
Mel is a salesman, and so is Tim. It is not a knock on them….I want a good salesman on my side….LOL
My not linking to the Seeking Alpha article was an error on my part. It has now been corrected. Perhaps the fact that I neglected to place the link will make Burnout smile. He yelled at me for not providing a link in a previous piece (which I also left out by accident and corrected).
“I published an article on Seeking Alpha outlining some potential positives as well as pitfalls for Pandora, as well as some of the similarities between Pandora and Sirius XM in their quest to get to profits.”
Yup, I’m with you Spencer . . . I can’t wait til Sirius XM is profitable! Does that fancy Seeking Alpha article of yours give any forecast of when you think Sirius XM might finally be profitable?
Roadkill…..
Sirius XM is profitable. We all know that. What the line is referring to was the quest to get their in an historic sense.
Sirius XM is there. Pandora wants to get there.
ok, thank you . . . just wanted the record to be clear in that regard!
I take back all the bad things I just posted about you in the forums – lol
Roadkill…..
I changed the sentence to read
“…similarities between Pandora and their quest to get to profits like Sirius XM already has.”
Hope that avoids any confusion and satisfies your high level of scrutiny….lol
This site has forums????? I was not aware….lol
Cheers
If you had invested 10 thousand in P when the market opened today you would have lost $1,290 so to me I view it as a failure and the stock will go down to its original IPO share price between $7 and $9.
The stock is down %25 so far today!!! I told you so yesterday. Hold on SIRI longs I see a big rally in July
“Mel is a salesman (as you have derisively referred to him, etc.”
sirius roadkill, et al, in a free market systems nothing happens untill an order is sold.
Many years ago, I knew the President of a company who began with them as their sale manager. He not only saved that company but made it very profitable.
Owning a small company myself at the time, I asked him what was the most important thing he did. His reply was, “I have never stopped thinking like a salesman.”
The number one reason I bought a lot of siri stock, is that salesman, Mel Karmazin.
i think brandon matthews has a good handle on the situation i think pandora is worth a buck a share, and clearly whoever got stuck at $20 or more were the retail investors who believed all the hype
Do you still think Pandora IPO is a success, moron. Yor u are wrong time after time about everything. Do you have a back bone at all.
geronimo…..
The company was supposed to IPO at $7….They were able to do it at $16. It was a success by every measure.
You say I am wrong time after time…..Please be specific about that. Exactly what times was I wrong? I would be curious to know.
Of course you could just be blowing smoke
geronimo….
just like I thought…..No response
Are you insane or just a straight up moron. “Company was supposed to IPO at $7.” It IPO’d at $16. ran as high as $26. Today it was as low as $12. and change, closed at $13. and change. Call me crazy but if I bought in at $16. and now looking at a share price of between $12 and $13 and dropping like a wet brick, I’m not feeling real successful. But then I’m not you. Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.
You’re incredible. You are the king of con.
geronimo….
You do realize that IPO stands for Initial Public Offering and is done so that the company can raise money. It was a smashing success. They raised over twice what they were initially anticipating.
My take on investing in the IPO was “wait and see” If you did any research you would know that.
Further, I am still waiting for you to tell me what I was wrong about. You seem to want to ignore that now.
Good for an investor and good for the company are two different things. Pandora wound up with an IPO much higher than they previously expected. So, as Spencer said “day one gets a thumbs up.”
I am sure Spencer can defend himself but, to me, you are the one who sounds insane. This article clearly states that he thought the stock would spike to over $20, which it did, and then he says that investors should wait for it to settle down.
Testimony on Yahoo bullitin board from from a successful investor in Pandora. He’s all giddy about it.
DON’T LAUBH , BUT I GOT SCREWED SO BADLY 17-Jun-11 06:58 am I JUMPED IN ON THE OPENING OF THE IPO @ 1000 SHARES $24.75 ON SCOTTRADE, HOPING FOR TO SELL @ $30, AND I ENDED UP SELLING @ $14 YESTERDAY. I THOUGHT BUYING SIRI @ $9 BACK IN 2004 WAS BAD, BUT THIS HURT BAD FOR 1 DAY
That only proves that this guy was an idiot. Spencer never said that investors who bought Pandora at the open were successful, he said the IPO was successful dummy.
Another successful Pandora investor. Spenser,or whatever the hell alias you’re hiding behind now, why don’t you pop over to the Yahoo bullitin board and read a few posts from “successful Pandora investors”. You might then want to re-write this POS article but then it’s all about the clicks not substance,right.
pandora IPO a farce- bubble and only 17-Jun-11 05:45 pm
the CEO, people who had the seed money and investment bankers make out like bandits. The funds and retail guys got screwed. Its going to $3.00 the POS- I cant believe they proped it up to $26. Someone needs to go to jail
this is criminal. The CEO could not answer questions of profitability. There will be no profit so why the hell take it public. Some many fools in this world and so many criminals
You’re a dummy… reading comprehension = FAIL.
geronimo….
1. Might I suggest that you take a few minutes to read the article slowly, and if needed, have someone explain what it means. If comprehension is not the issue, wait until the beers from Friday night partying wear off.
2. My name is Spencer Osborne. You can look that up with relative ease, although given your reading comprehension abilities you might want to get someone to help you.
3. I do not post on message boards. I had a choice….be a writer with integrity or a writer that pimps himself out by posting on message boards. I chose to be a writer with integrity.
4. Clicks do not change much from day to day, so it matters little. If I cared about clicks, perhaps I would be a writer who pimps himself out by running over to the Yahoo boards when I write articles.
cheers
Gee, I thought the fomat here was for investors not Corp. business owners and fat cats. Guess it depends on which way the wind blows. Just so you know I don’t have any skin in this game. Sure they got fat on the backs of the small investor, the little guy. More WS BS. Keep it up, you’ll lose the entire retail investor market. Thry’ll simply just go away.
if you have no skin in the game why do you come here casting insults?
I do have a position in SIRI, SIRIUSBUZZ, see the connection…