Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora, this week stepped out as Chief Executive and from the panel of Directors, as the internet radio giant struggles to gain more listeners in the race against Spotify and Apple.
Naveen Chopra, the Chief Financial Officer, will start as a temporary CEO during the hunt for a permanent substitute for Westergren, claimed the California-based company, Oakland.
The exit was a fraction of a huge shake-up in top management of Pandora, with Chief Marketing Officer Nick Bartle and President Mike Herring also making an exit from the company.
“Over the last few weeks, the panel has taken a number of measures to reinforce and refocus Pandora,” Roger Faxon, member of the panel, claimed in a statement to the media declaring departure of Westergren.
“As listeners carry on moving to more flexible and dynamic offerings from conventional terrestrial radio, it is the panel’s faith that this changeover persists to present a huge opportunity, and that the company is in a perfect position to seize a rising share of this spectators.”
Another panel member, Tim Leiweke, was thankful to Westergren for coming up voluntarily in 2016 to serve as CEO of the company at a time when the company was not in a good condition.”
“Westergren was swiftly able to retune relations with the huge labels, reassemble the management squad, roll out our on-demand service, and reinforce our balance sheet by reserving an investment from Sirius XM,” Leiweke claimed.
“We support the desire that Tim had to recognize a new CEO for next stage of Pandora.”
SiriusXM, the satellite radio network, lately claimed that it will spend almost $480 Million in Pandora, building a union between 2 firms that have worked on parallel paths.
The decision comes in the middle of swift modifications in the music industry. Pandora, which has witnessed its model fall back to Spotify and other on-demand online platforms, last month requested for buyers.
Pandora is also trading off Ticketfly, a ticketing firm well-known with independent rock venues, for $200 Million to Eventbrite, the event management website.
The sale remarks a noteworthy loss as Pandora obtained Ticketfly less than 2 years back for $450 Million, believing it as a new approach to widen its reach.
SiriusXM got a 16% share in Pandora and 3 seats on its panel. Slashing costs by letting go top administrative is an indication of an acquirement than just an investment, as per industry analyst Rob Enderle.
