 RAIN NEWS FLASH: Pandora shares leap to over $20 in market debut ·Jun 15, 04:16 AM COMPANY VALUATION REACHED $4.2 BILLION IN ITS FIRST HOUR AS A PUBLIC COMPANYPandora’s shares soared in its market debut Wednesday morning, opening at $20 per share (from its IPO price to institutional investors Tuesday night of $16) rising to $26 — equivalent to a valuation of $4.2 billion (121% higher than its propsoed $1.9 billion valuation last week here).
(Pictured at right: Pandora founder Tim Westergren, in brown jacket, and CEO Joe Kennedy, center, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Each owns Pandora shares worth over $75 million at the moment.) The $26 high point (so far) “is nearly twice” the current value of AOL Inc.,” writes the Washington Post (here), “but a fraction of such Internet behemoths as Google Inc. or even Yahoo Inc.” At this moment of publication, Pandora’s share price stands at just over $20. That’s still 220% to 285% of Pandora’s original suggested share price of $7-9. You can follow Pandora’s stock progress through Google here.
You can read more coverage of Tuesday night’s Pandora IPO price-setting of $16 here. Stand by for continuing coverage and analysis from RAIN, including RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson’s exclusive interview this morning with Pandora founder Tim Westergren. RAIN ANALYSIS: If the price this morning settles in at $20, that suggests that the underwriters priced the stock almost perfectly last night — high enough that Pandora got a lot Incidentally, at a $20 stock price, Pandora’s enterprise value would be $3.6 billion, making it roughly tied with CBS Radio for the position of America’s third-most-valuable radio broadcast group (behind Sirius XM and Clear Channel Radio, but exceeding the enterprise values of the radio divisions of Entercom, Cox, Univision, and Radio One combined). — KH
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CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
more money for its shares than it previously expected, but low enough to still see a first-day-of-trading pop (which is a good PR move).
