Pandora to issue more stock, warns it can’t sustain its rapid growth

Leading webcaster (and public company) Pandora plans to sell 10 million more shares of stock as a “follow on” offering, to raise $279 million for “general corporate purposes.” The company’s biggest investor shareholder, Crosslink Capital, also plans to sell 4 million shares it holds.

And though it says it has nothing in the works, Pandora may use some of the money it raises “for potential acquisitions of businesses, products or technologies.”

Within its announcement of the proposed offering, Pandora warned it doesn’t “expect to be able to sustain (the) rapid growth in both listener hours and advertising revenue” it has enjoyed in the last few years — meaning it expects to continue to lose money in the near future. The company continues to battle sound recording and composition copyright owners over royalties (by far its largest expenses, consuming more than half the company’s revenue), and faces perhaps its biggest competitive test yet with tomorrow’s launch of Apple’s iTunes Radio.

Read more on this in The Wall Street Journal here, Tom Taylor Now here, and from Pandora here.

Paul Maloney