If I’m Joe Kennedy, CEO of Internet radio company Pandora Media, I’m leaving the following message for my banker at Morgan Stanley:
“Hey, guys. It’s Joe. I’m glad we were able to get our IPO pricing terms filed with the SEC today, and I love the idea of a $1.4 billion valuation. But, in the future, could you let us know if we’re attempting to make news at the exact same time that one of your other clients is sucking up all the Internet IPO oxygen? You did know Groupon was filing today, right? Not a huge deal — it obviously won’t affect the actual offering — but it would be nice to be on the top half of Techmeme. Thanks.”
The Oakland-based company says that it plans to offer more than 13.68 million common shares at between $7 and $9 per share, and trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol P. It had originally filed in February to raise $100 million. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Citi are serving as co-lead underwriters (MS is the only one also working Groupon).
Pandora reports a $1.7 million net loss for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2011, on over $137 million in revenue (mostly from advertising). This compares to an $16.7 million net loss on around $57 million in revenue for the year-earlier period.
Pandora has raised around $56 million in VC funding, from firms like Crosslink Capital (22.92% pre-IPO stake), Walden Venture Capital (18.67%), Greylock Partners (14.06%), Labrador Ventures (8.46%), The Hearst Corp. (5.73%) and GGV Capital (5.15%). Hearst plans to sell around half of its position.
