SiriusXM, which offers satellite and online radio listening, confirmed that it’ll acquire Pandora.
The deal between these two companies is valued at around $3.5 billion, and it’s an all-stock transaction. SiriusXM and Pandora are on a path to create the world’s largest audio entertainment business. It’s a moniker that both sides mentioned in blog posts while discussing the advantages for users.
Expect the content on SiriusXM and Pandora to get bolstered over time. The acquiring company, SiriusXM, explained that it’ll have more resources from capital to talent that can be leveraged. Also, Sirius XM and Pandora reminded everyone that subscriptions are staying untouched at this time.
While there won’t be any immediate tweaks, SiriusXM must have significant plans for its new asset. Pandora includes a large number of users as well as a vast catalog of music. The services might eventually be bundled together under one name, but SiriusXM isn’t commenting on any major transitions yet.
More than 32 million subscribers are paying for SiriusXM’s service. As for Pandora, around 6 million users are on the premium model. The music streaming service also gains over 70 million users who don’t pay for access and instead listen to advertisements.
In the music streaming battle, Pandora sits far behind Spotify and Apple Music.
We’ll see how this deal between SiriusXM and Pandora takes shape in the coming months. It wouldn’t be surprising if an all-in-one subscription gets introduces soon.
