Pandora Sells Ticketfly For A $250 Million Loss But Shares Still Gain 5%

Shares of Pandora Media Inc P gained more than 5 percent Friday morning after the company announced two new transactions as part of an ongoing strategic review.

Strategic Investment

Pandora secured an agreement with Sirius XM Holdings Inc. SIRI in which the satellite radio provider will invest $480 million in the company.

"Pandora is now poised to advance to the next stage of the company's lifecycle," said Pandora director, Tim Leiweke. "We are pleased that the conclusion of our strategic review resulted in a major investment by a world class company like SiriusXM."

Sale Of Ticketfly

Pandora also confirmed the sale of Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200 million.

Ticketfly, a rival to Ticketmaster, was acquired by Pandora in 2015 as part of a cash and stock deal which valued the company at $450 million. As such, Friday's transaction implies Pandora will be selling its unit for a $250 million loss.

However, the transaction did give Pandora valuable data that it likely leveraged to directly target consumers that it knows listens to a particular style of music or a band which generated incremental revenue for Pandora.

As part of the transaction with Eventbrite, the two companies are expected to enter into a commercial agreement in which Pandora will be given the opportunity to broaden the scale of its ticketing opportunities.

Game Plan

Pandora believes its actions to date puts it in a better position to create a hybrid advertising and subscription model that can see success where other companies may have struggled.

In conjunction with Friday's announcement, management reiterated its financial guidance which was provided in early May. The company expects revenue for the second quarter to fall in a range of $360 million to $375 million with an Adjusted EBITDA loss to be in a range of $65 million to $50 million.

For the full year, the company still expects to see total sales of $1.50 billion to $1.65 billion, prior to any adjustment for the sale of Ticketfly.

"This is a very significant juncture in Pandora's journey," said Tim Westergren, Pandora's CEO and founder. "After years of innovation and hard work we now have critical pieces in place: A massive and highly engaged audience, a market-leading digital advertising business, a best-in-class product portfolio, and a robust balance sheet that gives us the flexibility we need to attack what is becoming a larger and larger opportunity as digital music enters a new golden age."

At last check, shares of Pandora were up 5.82 percent at $8.91.

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