Hearst, a US media conglomerate, has raised $69.9m by selling down half its stake in the flotation of US online music company Pandora Media after it priced above its expected range.
Hearst was the only shareholder with a more than 5% stake to sell down any shares in the initial public offering (IPO). Pandora priced at $16 per share, above a projected range of $10 to $12 each, and Hearst sold just under 4.4m shares. Hearst also retained the same amount, leaving it with a 2.7% stake in the public company which began trading today.
According to the company’s regulatory filing, Hearst’s shares being offered in the flotation include 2,875,576 series D redeemable convertible preferred stock (issued at $1.15 each, or $3.3m in total against the $46m raised from the flotation sale price), 694,308 shares acquired in connection with the series E financing (bought at $1.70 per share in January 2009 for $1.2m against the $11.1m realisation value) and 797,369 shares acquired in connection with the series F financing (bought at nearly $0.78 per share for nearly $622,000 versus $12.8m sale value). This gives a crystallized profit of $64.8m ($69.9m sale price pre-banker charges minus $5.1m cost).
Hearst reportedly first backed Pandora in 2006, investing an undisclosed sum. In total 14.7 million shares of Pandora were sold (six million from the company itself and the rest from shareholders), raising $235.2m to give a market capitalisation of $2.6bn. The investment banks underwriting the IPO were Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citi.
Other shareholders in Pandora, which is a music streaming service, are venture capital firms Crosslink Capital (22.9% before the flotation), Walden Venture Capital, Greylock Partners, Labrador Ventures and GGV Capital.
Over time Pandora has raised more than $60m, with its last funding round led by GGV Capital raising an undisclosed sum last year.