Now even Pandora is struggling with its future
Music streaming service Pandora had a bizarre day Thursday just before announcing its latest earnings report.
Its stock moved up and down so wildly -- suddenly jumping from just over $8 a share to over $9 a share -- that the New York Stock Exchange forced trading in Pandora stock to come to a sudden halt.
The sudden jump in Pandora shares just after 2 p.m. appears related to the publication of story from The New York Times, based on anonymous sources, that the company hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to explore a sale.
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The NYSE eventually allowed trading in Pandora shares to resume, and they stayed pretty high, in the range of $9.
10-year old Pandora was among the first to judge the musical interests of listeners and serve them music based on songs they already like. The service is largely free -- if you're willing to listen to ads -- but also has some paying customers who shell out $5 a month.
Pandora's business of streaming music is an embattled one, and even its biggest competitors, such as Spotify and Tidal, are struggling to make a profit.
Pandora has been responding by buying up companies to strengthen its offerings. Rdio, an early entrant, limped to a $75 million merger with Pandora just last year.
Pandora also bought Ticketfly, a live events service that would allow music fans to quickly score tickets to live events.
For the companies that are still alive, the streaming business is getting more difficult. In December, a court ruled that Pandora would have to increase its fees to musical artists by 21%, which will cut into the company's revenues.
Spotify, while hugely popular, has been struggling to make its business model work. It tripled its losses in two years. In addition, technology giants are jumping into streaming with almost infinite resources. Apple has poured millions into Apple Music and Amazon is building a "Spotify Killer," while Google has shown interest into entering the streaming business as well.
For Pandora, that could be good news: with all those rich tech giants looking for a way to get into music streaming, Pandora should find no shortage of potential buyers.
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Heidi Moore is a Business Editor at Mashable. She directs a team of reporters and editors in creating richly reported, smart and entertaining stories about media, startups, advertising, careers and Social Good that show that business is really a reflection of life and what we value in it.Heidi was previously a finance and economics editor at the Guardian, New York bureau chief and Wall Street correspondent at Marketplace Radio, and a financial reporter at the Wall Street JournalShe loves yoga, rooftops and taking photographs of everything.
