Friday, June 10, 2011

SoCal Investors To Benefit, As Pandora Bumps IPO Estimates

Pandora Media, the online personalized radio station service based out of Oakland, has bumped its estimated IPO pricing range this morning, and upped the number of shares it is planning to offer in its IPO. The firm said it will now offer 14,684,000 shares, estimated to price at between $10.00 and $12.00 per share, above the earlier, 13,684,000 shares of stock and $7.00 to $9.00 per share estimated price. The bump in the IPO estimates, and if the IPO is successful, will result in a windfall for at least three, Southern California-linked investors and high tech executives. According to Pandora's revised S-1, Peter Gotcher, co-founder of Los Angeles-based TopSpin Media, now has a stake worth roughly $19.14M (1,595,380 shares); Howard Morgan, of Pasadena-based Idealab, owns a stake worth $2.98M (249,150 shares); and Jon Kraft, COO of Pasadena-based Twitter client firm Ubermedia--and a former Pandora founder--has a stake worth around $8.25M (687,500 shares). Pandora has not said when it will price its IPO, but firms generally set their IPO estimated pricing a few days to a couple of weeks ahead of their IPO pricing.