Pandora sales rise with spike of subscribers
Paying customers surged 25 percent over a year ago
OAKLAND >> A big increase in revenue from subscribers helped Pandora post better-than-expected sales during the last three months of 2017, giving the internet radio company a boost as it goes through changes at its Oakland headquarters.
Pandora said Wednesday that during its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in December, revenue from subscriptions
rose by more than 63 percent from a year ago, to $97.7 million.
That figure also topped analysts’ forecasts for subscription revenue of $94.1 million.
Pandora ended the quarter with 5.48 million paying subscribers, up 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016.
The improvements in subscribers helped Pandora’s shares rise as much as 8 percent, to $5.28, in after-hours trading Wednesday. By 2:54 p.m. PST, however, they were trading up 4.7 percent at $5.10.
With gains from its base of subscribers, Pandora’s total revenue in the quarter reached $395.3 million, up from $392.6 million in the year-earlier period. Earnings, excluding one-time items, came in at 21 cents a share, compared with a loss of 13 cents a share a year earlier.
Wall Street analysts had forecast that Pandora would lose 7 cents a share on $375.8 million in sales.
Pandora’s results capped a tumultuous 2017 for the in-
ternet radio company. During the year, satellite radio company Sirius XM invested $480 million in Pandora, giving it an almost 20-percent stake in
the company. Pandora co-founder and Chief Executive Tim Westergren also left the company last year and was replaced by former Sling CEO Roger Lynch.
Pandora’s shareholders have seen their patience tested over the last year. The company’s executive
changes, uncertainty over whether it would remain independent and some disappointing quarterly reports, have all weighed on Pandora’s stock price, as its share have fallen more than 61 percent since February 2017.
The upheaval at Pandora hasn’t ended, however. On Jan. 31, the company said that while it will maintain its headquarters in Oakland, it plans to shift some operations to Atlanta, as it also cut 5 percent of its workforce, or about 125 jobs.