SIRIUS/XM, PANDORA CONTINUE SALE TALKS

SiriusXM and Pandora continue to discuss a sale but have not reached an agreement on value, CNBC has reported. Pandora has a 6/8 deadline to either accept a hedge fund’s $150m financing offer or strike a deal.

Pandora rejected a takeover offer 10 months ago and has had on and off talks with SiriusXM since December. SiriusXM has concerns that Pandora’s is on subscriptions rather than the streaming business.

KKR, an investment firm known for its private equity and hedge funds, plans to invest $150m in Pandora in exchange for new shares of preferred stock. Sources told CNBC that Pandora is confident it can come to an agreement to sell prior to that financing deal closing on 6/8.

Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, which owns SiriusXM, said on 5/9, "Pandora actually under-monetizes on its listening hours ... it has a superior product to many of the other free services."

In early morning trading SiriusXM was up slightly to $4.89 while Pandora was 1.3% to $9.30.