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SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

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Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#51

Post by post_break »

cptskippy wrote: post #24
wil421 wrote: post #9

Cancelling Sirus is always interesteing. I always say I don’t want to pay the $90 or however much for 6 months of access. No $50 is also too high. How about $30? Ok sure I’ll pay. I think Sirus only makes money off the folks who forget to cancel after the promotional period. It’s like $20 a month and I’ve forgot to do it my self for a couple months. Pandora always had the best selections on their radio channels. Spot…

After buying an XM enabled car from a dealership, I was extremely disappointed when I started receiving weekly mailings and phone calls from them as my "trial" was expiring. I am still pissed off about the lengths I had to go to in order to stop receiving communications from them. They refused to remove my contact information from their system and could not promise I wouldn't be contacted again in the future. I had t…

I told them I sold my car, they stopped calling after that. It was still annoying.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#52

Post by plopz »

Thrymr wrote: post #50
jbob2000 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SiriusXM is dying, if not already dead. Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone? Or just stream? 10 years ago, you could still do these things, but it was harder or very expensive. Now, you just open an app on your unlimited data phone, plug in the aux cable, and start driving. So this purchase is about Sirius re-entering the market. I think they'll p…

> Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone? Anyone who is away from a good data connection for a significant amount of time. E.g. long haul truckers, rural areas (especially in the western US), mountainous regions. If most of your car time is commuting in the city/suburbs, that may not be an issue.

That doesn't seem like it would be a very large or profitable customer base.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#53

Post by throwaway5752 »

jbob2000 wrote: post #5
relaunched wrote: post #3

This makes me side. I am a long-time, paid subscriber. We'll see what happens next, fingers crossed. I'm not sure if this was a win for the team or a mercy killing. But, if someone can explain what's in this for customers, that would be very helpful.

SiriusXM is dying, if not already dead. Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone? Or just stream? 10 years ago, you could still do these things, but it was harder or very expensive. Now, you just open an app on your unlimited data phone, plug in the aux cable, and start driving. So this purchase is about Sirius re-entering the market. I think they'll p…

SiriusXM is worth $30-40B USD and is profitable.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#54

Post by xirdstl »

cptskippy wrote: post #24
wil421 wrote: post #9

Cancelling Sirus is always interesteing. I always say I don’t want to pay the $90 or however much for 6 months of access. No $50 is also too high. How about $30? Ok sure I’ll pay. I think Sirus only makes money off the folks who forget to cancel after the promotional period. It’s like $20 a month and I’ve forgot to do it my self for a couple months. Pandora always had the best selections on their radio channels. Spot…

After buying an XM enabled car from a dealership, I was extremely disappointed when I started receiving weekly mailings and phone calls from them as my "trial" was expiring. I am still pissed off about the lengths I had to go to in order to stop receiving communications from them. They refused to remove my contact information from their system and could not promise I wouldn't be contacted again in the future. I had t…

My experience was similar. I think I blocked the phone number they called from, and that seems to have been effective.

Unfortunately, though not a subscriber, my car stereo often defaults to the Sirius input when I start it. This mean I'm greeted with Sirius ads when I start my car. Usually, this ad literally consists of playing a really annoying buzzing/screeching sound, followed by someone explaining that if you subscribe, you won't have to listen to that sound. That's an .. interesting .. strategy.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#55

Post by rubicon33 »

treis wrote: post #15
chollida1 wrote: post #2

Poor Pandora and their investors. This is for about a quarter of what they were worth just 4 years ago. Saddly this is almost all self inflicted. While Spotify, Apple music and Google music really worked hard to get people to actually pay for the service Pandora continued to act like it was a VC backed company in hyper growth mode long after that was the case. They fought with the record labels longer than most of th…

>Poor Pandora and their investors. This is for about a quarter of what they were worth just 4 years ago. They also got 3.5 billion for a company that hasn't made any money in its 18 year existence so it's hard to feel too bad.

Being a business noob, I've got to ask - How exactly does a company that makes nothing in 18 years, get acquired for 3.5 billion?

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#56

Post by handruin »

josefresco wrote: post #47
01100011 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had Sirius for bugs me is that drive under a tree or overpass. Seriously, having really bugs me.

my LTE Does that too

I've had very few buffering issues with Spotify via LTE over the years when compared the constant dropouts from my SiriusXM in my various cars that have had this service. SiriusXM audio quality is also terribly compressed and tinny in addition to the constant drop outs. I've never had a good experience with their product.

Spotify can also download large quantities of music and playlists...so with minimal planing you will have no buffering issues.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#57

Post by roymurdock »

rubicon33 wrote: post #55
treis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Poor Pandora and their investors. This is for about a quarter of what they were worth just 4 years ago. They also got 3.5 billion for a company that hasn't made any money in its 18 year existence so it's hard to feel too bad.

Being a business noob, I've got to ask - How exactly does a company that makes nothing in 18 years, get acquired for 3.5 billion?

users, and their generated data along with the potential to monetize whatever service they are consuming, is the new "revenue"

they can also integrate the tech to be more competitive, or they can shut the service (currently a competitor) down and hope to pick up a portion of those listeners

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#58

Post by handruin »

jbob2000 wrote: post #25
josefresco wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why do I need satellite radio" I'll answer my myself: For my car(s). SiriusXM just ... works. No pairing, no bluetooth on/off dance, no cables, no unpairing my wife's phone, no setting my car radio's source, Internet connection or not ... it just works. The only other time I listen to "satellite" radio is in my office, streaming from my Chromebook - which is just silly but don't judge me.

This just sounds like a problem with your car's stereo. For me, I get in the car, plug my phone in (always have a car-only charger cable), press "Media" on the dash, and it picks up whatever was playing on my phone. I don't have sirius built into my car, I think this is an american car thing (did sirius pay them buckets of money for this integration? methinks so). If I wanted it, I'd have to have a ugly receiver tape…

This isn't just an American car thing. My past two Japanese vehicles and two German vehicles had SiriusXM built into the radio.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#59

Post by handruin »

Thrymr wrote: post #50
jbob2000 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SiriusXM is dying, if not already dead. Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone? Or just stream? 10 years ago, you could still do these things, but it was harder or very expensive. Now, you just open an app on your unlimited data phone, plug in the aux cable, and start driving. So this purchase is about Sirius re-entering the market. I think they'll p…

> Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone? Anyone who is away from a good data connection for a significant amount of time. E.g. long haul truckers, rural areas (especially in the western US), mountainous regions. If most of your car time is commuting in the city/suburbs, that may not be an issue.

My podcasts are all downloaded with multiple episodes for each podcast and so is a large collection of my Spotify music. I get what you're saying but it isn't that big of an issue with a reasonably modern mobile device and a little customization of the app to do the downloads for you.

Re: SiriusXM buys Pandora for $3.5 billion

#60

Post by seabrookmx »

rubicon33 wrote: post #55
treis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Poor Pandora and their investors. This is for about a quarter of what they were worth just 4 years ago. They also got 3.5 billion for a company that hasn't made any money in its 18 year existence so it's hard to feel too bad.

Being a business noob, I've got to ask - How exactly does a company that makes nothing in 18 years, get acquired for 3.5 billion?

I'm a bit of a noob here as well, but my stab at it would be:

1) They have lots of customers. I work in the music industry and have insight into how much money Pandora brings in. They might not be _profitable_ but there's definitely a lot of cash flowing there, meaning profitability isn't out of the question.

2) Technology and fit with existing business - SiriusXM has lots of curated and exclusive content. With a Spotify-like platform in Pandora, they can get some of that content infront of more streamers and diversify Pandora. The only streaming service with Howard Stern, and the only one that you can stream directly to your car over Sattelite without using data? That's compelling for a lot of people.

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