Company mergers are all too common in today’s commerce and two players in the game that you wouldn’t expect come together are now becoming one.
In a $3.5 billion all-stock deal, Sirius XM is due to acquire Pandora, in a blockbuster deal that will have a ripple effect across the industry.
Pandora’s 70 million monthly active user base will join the 36 million subscribers on Sirius XM to expand the reach of both. Not only will Sirius create special subscription packages that will be priced at different tiers, but the satellite giant will leverage their programming into those costs for bigger bundles.
The news might also help Pandora get back into the automobile business after losing market share in Toyota when they decided to remove them from their audio system.
SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer envisions cross-promotion of these platforms, especially for the user base that’s on free trials.
The deal is expected to go through in the first quarter of 2019 when Pandora stockholders green light it. As of now, the Sirius XM’s board of directors has approved of the deal unanimously. The details are also being ironed out.