Crosslink Capital Continues To Shed Large Stake in Pandora Media Inc (P)

The royalty payments have been a major concern for Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P). According to the company’s first quarter results, content acquisition costs stood at 54.6% of the company’s revenues. The most recent blow to the company over performance royalties came after a New York rate court ruled in favor of BMI, the company offering blanket music licenses to songwriters, composers and publishers. The decision hikes Pandora’s royalty payments to BMI to 2.5% of revenue, up from an earlier 1.75%. However, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) will appeal the verdict to a court which allowed it to maintain its 1.85% royalty rate to ASCAP recently.

Another recent development in Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P)’s camp is the company’s decision to acquire Next Big Sound for an undisclosed sum. It is believed that Pandora’s Artist marketing platform, which helps artists by providing them with data on listener activity, will benefit a great deal from this acquisition. Moreover, the U.S Federal Communications Commission recently allowed Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) to exceed the 25% foreign ownership benchmark pertaining to its acquisition of the South Dakota radio station KXMZ FM, valued at $600,000.

Among over 700 hedge funds that we track at Insider Monkey, the interest in Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) has declined early this year, as a total of 37 funds had an aggregate investment of $752.05 million at the end of March as opposed to 43 firms with $909.78 million invested at the end of 2014. Ricky Sandler‘s Eminence Capital and Ken Griffin‘s renowned managed futures fund Citadel Investment Group are two other prominent stockholders of Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) with stakes of 7.89 million shares valued at $127.89 million and 3.24 million shares valued at $52.58 million respectively.

Disclosure: None