The co-founder and CEO of Pandora, under intensifying competitive pressure from Spotify and Apple Music, has relinquished his position and will step down from the company board as well.
Tim Westergren, who helped found the company 17 years ago, returned as CEO about 15 months ago with Pandora struggling to match the subscribers heading to rival services. He had also been CEO between 2002 and 2004.
After Westergren's return as CEO in March, the company launched a new $10 a month on-demand music service which lets users select the songs they want to hear, copying what Spotify and Apple Music already offers.
"Tim stepped in to be CEO at a critical time for the company and was quickly able to reset relations with the major labels, launch our on-demand service, reconstitute the management team and refortify our balance sheet by securing an investment from Sirius XM, said board member Tim Leiweke. "We support Tim's desire to identify a new CEO for Pandora's next stage."
But actions taken after Westergren's return may have been too little too late.
John Egbert, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, believes the company made some missteps that shifted its focus from the core of its business.
"During his time as CEO, Mr. Westergren did a commendable job repairing fractured relationships with the music industry enabling Pandora to strike direct licenses with labels so it could offer a full suite of ad-supported and subscription listening services, which we think are critical to the company's future," wrote Egbert. "Although we view the concessions Pandora made with the music industry as a necessary cost of building a potentially lucrative subscription business, in hindsight the company also took some major strategic missteps over past few years."
Pandora had 4.7 million paying subscribers at the end of March, while Spotify said it had more than 50 million.
Pandora and other streaming music services use algorithms to determine what listeners want to hear, based on the songs they like and do not like. Ads are played in the free version, but users can pay $5 per month to listen ad-free. Pandora makes most of its money from the free version, bringing in nearly $1.1 billion in ad revenue last year.
Pandora said Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra will serve as interim CEO as it looks for a permanent replacement. The company, based in Oakland, California, also said that Michael Herring has stepped down as president and that former MySpace and MTV Networks executive Jason Hirschhorn is joining Pandora's board. Westergren still holds 1.6 million shares in Pandora, less than 1 percent of total outstanding shares.
The executive shakeup comes a few weeks after Pandora made two moves to raise cash: It sold a 19 percent stake in its business to satellite radio company Sirius XM for $480 million and sold a ticket-selling business for $200 million.
Shares of Pandora Media Inc., which are already down 35 percent since the beginning of the year, slipped about 1 percent to $8.38 in midday trading.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More