Pandora is being sold for $3.5 billion

SiriusXM purchased 19% of Pandora’s stock in 2017, investing $480 million into the company. Now, they’ve gone all-in, announcing on September 24th that they’ll buy Pandora for $3.5 billion — this acquisition will create the largest audio entertainment company on the planet.

Pandora was a revolutionary introduction to the music industry in 2000, introducing fans to new music tailored to each individual listener. Currently, the streaming service has over 70 million monthly listeners worldwide.

SiriusXM currently has more than 36 million subscribers in North America.

“We have long respected Pandora and their team for their popular consumer offering that has attracted a massive audience, and have been impressed by Pandora’s strategic progress and stronger execution,” Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM states.

“We believe there are significant opportunities to create value for both companies’ stockholders by combining our complementary businesses. The addition of Pandora diversifies SiriusXM’s revenue streams with the U.S.’s largest ad-supported audio offering, broadens our technical capabilities, and represents an exciting next step in our efforts to expand our reach out of the car even further.”

“Through targeted investments, we see significant opportunities to drive innovation that will accelerate growth beyond what would be available to the separate companies, and does so in a way that also benefits consumers, artists, and the broader content communities.”

“Together, we will deliver even more of the best content on radio to our passionate and loyal listeners, and attract new listeners, across our two platforms” he concluded.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.