This Day In Market History: Pandora Goes Public

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened?

On this day seven years ago, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE: P) went public.

Where The Market Was

The Dow closed at 11,897.27. The S&P 500 traded at around 1,265.42. Today, the Dow is trading at 25,039.74 and the S&P 500 is trading at 2,768.73.

What Else Was Going On In The World?

In 2011, the U.S. military officially repealed its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning homsexuals in the military. The Occupy Wall Street movement gathered in New York to protest income inequality. A U.S. postage stamp cost 44 cents.

First Music Streaming IPO

Pandora went public at a price of $16 per share and a market cap of $2.6 billion. Life on the public market hasn’t been particularly kind to the music streaming giant in the seven years that followed. The S&P 500 is up 115 percent since Pandora’s IPO, but Pandora’s stock trades at just $8.03, down roughly 50 percent from its IPO price. Today, Pandora’s market cap stands at $2 billion.

Pandora has struggled to prove to Wall Street that its model can be profitable. In the first quarter of 2018, Pandora reported a net loss of $131.7 million.

To make matters worse, rising competition from Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT), Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and others is only making Pandora’s uphill climb even steeper.

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