Satellite radio giant SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) is buying music streaming service Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) for $3.5 billion U.S.
Sirius says the purchase of Pandora will allow it to expand its service beyond cars and into mobile devices and homes. Pandora is a leading competitor of other streaming music services such as Spotify and iTunes.
SiriusXM’s outright purchase of Pandora comes after it made a $480-million U.S. investment in the music streaming service in June 2017. Analysts said that the deal will enable SiriusXM to tap into Pandora's mobile services and help it to make personalized listening recommendations for its subscribers.
New York-based SiriusXM has more than 36 million subscribers in North America, while Pandora has more than 70 million active users. Pandora is currently unavailable in Canada. SiriusXM says both brands will continue to exist, along with their respective products and services.
The Board of Directors at each company has already approved the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. Pandora share holders will receive 1.44 SiriusXM shares for each Pandora share they own.
