Pandora revenue misses estimate as ad sales growth slows
A screen displays the name of music streaming company Pandora on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the start of trading in New York July 1, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
(Reuters) – Online music streaming service Pandora Media Inc’s (P.N) quarterly sales fell short of market estimates amid slowing advertising revenue growth and the company forecast lower-than-expected revenue for the current quarter.
Shares of the company, which recommends music by predicting listener’s preferences, slumped 22 percent to $14.4 in extended trading.
Advertising revenue, which accounted for 82 percent of Pandora’s total revenue, rose to $220.1 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $162 million a year earlier.
Pandora Media said active users by the end of 2014 were 81.5 million, while listener hours for the fourth quarter were 5.20 billion.
Analysts had expected 79 million active users and 5.38 billion listener hours, according to market research firm StreetAccount.
Pandora is facing stiff competition from Spotify, Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) Beats online streaming service, Google Inc (GOOG.O), and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) in the fast-growing music streaming business.
Spotify, which is fast catching up, said last month it had 15 million subscribers and 60 million active users at the end of 2014.
Pandora forecast current-quarter revenue of $220 million-$225 million, below an expected $243.6 million.
Net income rose to $12.3 million, or 6 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $8.9 million, or 4 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $268 million from $200.4 million. Mobile revenue rose 43 percent to $209.5 million.
(This version of the story corrects the headline and paragraph 1 to say ad sales growth rate slowed, ad sales did not fall. It also corrects paragraph 3 to say ad rev rose, did not fall.)
(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Sayantani Ghosh)