SiriusXM Finalizes $3.5 Billion Purchase of Pandora

Satellite radio giant SiriusXM has completed its $3.5 billion acquisition of digital radio and streaming service Pandora. Shareholders gave the deal their seal of approval earlier in the week, when it was also announced that Pandora CEO Roger Lynch, along with several other execs, would be stepping down.

With the acquisition complete, shares of Pandora will no longer be available on the New York Stock Exchange, and each will be converted into 1.44 new shares of SiriusXM stock.

SiriusXM announced its all-stock purchase of Pandora in late September, citing large scale cross-promotional opportunities between SiriusXM's base of 36 million subscribers and Pandora's 68.8 million monthly active users. The companies are expected to leverage the satellite radio firm's programming with Pandora's various tiers to create special subscription packages.

"This is a tremendous outcome for two organizations with complementary platforms and large audiences, and we could not be more excited to be moving forward as one company," said Jim Meyer, CEO of SiriusXM. "With SiriusXM's subscription-based national service of curated and exclusive content and programming, and Pandora, the largest U.S. streaming music provider with its highly personalized free ad-supported service, under one roof, SiriusXM now reaches more than 100 million people across its audio products. That is a powerful platform for consumers, content creators and advertisers."

With Meyer now at the helm of both SiriusXM and Pandora, it becomes an industry-leading digital-audio company that generated nearly $7 billion in revenue in 2017. In addition to Lynch, Pandora CFO Naveen Chopra, CHRO Kristen Robinson and general counsel Steve Bene have also left the company.