Pandora Files for IPO, Seeks to Raise $100 Million

Popular Internet radio service Pandora is tuning up for an IPO later this year.

The company outlined its plans for an initial public offering of stock in a Friday filing with securities regulators.

The documents indicated Pandora will seek to raise $100 million, although that figure can change as bankers gauge investor demand.

A target price for the shares won’t be set until the IPO is closer to happening. The offering probably won’t happen for at least three months.

Pandora Media Inc. started streaming songs over the Internet in 2005. It now has 80 million registered users in the U.S.

The company, based in Oakland, Calif., remains unprofitable. It lost $300,000 on revenue of $90 million in the first nine months its current fiscal year.

According to Forbes, Pandora in the past “struggled with bankruptcy,” and the IPO represents something of a comeback for the digital radio company.

In recent years Pandora managed to find success in the mobile market with its phone apps being downloaded in the U.S. some 50 million times. More recently, the company announced partnerships with car manufacturers BMW, Ford and Toyota who will begin offering Pandora in their future automobile lines.

A report by Ando Media, cited in the Wall Street Journal, said that among the top 20 internet radio stations and networks ion the U.S., Pandora has a  50% share of all Internet radio listening