Pandora Radio Co-Founder And CEO Tim Westergren Steps Down

The Pandora Radio founder has left the company he started for a second time amidst a new deal with Sirius XM. A company that promised to revolutionize the way listeners listen to radio.

From NPR The Record Tim Westergren, the co-founder of Pandora who returned to the company's chief executive seat last year after the exit of Brian McAndrews, is leaving the company he started over 17 years ago, it was announced this morning. He will resign his position as chief executive and exit the company's board of directors.

"I believe Pandora is perfectly poised for its next chapter," Westergren says in a statement regarding the move. Chief financial officer Naveen Chopra will assume the vacated seat until a replacement is found. The company also announced that chief marketing officer Nick Bartle and president Mike Herring will be leaving Pandora as well, and that Jason Hirschhorn, founder of the media aggregation company ReDEF and a former co-president of Myspace, would be appointed a director, and receive $40,000 and equity for his trouble.

Pandora has had a tumultuous few months in the boardroom; after securing $150 million in funding from private equity group KKR — and adding former AEG CEO Tim Leiweke as an independent director and advisor — it dropped that deal for a $480 million investment from satellite broadcaster SiriusXM. SiriusXM also gained three seats on the company's board in the deal.

This article continues at NPR The Record [...]

This is the new logo for Pandora, which has caused confusion with the company PayPal. Pandora has faced stiff competition from newer start-ups and companies like Spotify and Apple Music. The company which marketed itself as "radio" has never turned a profit over 17 years. Employees at the company, were early on in its existence, convinced to work for free for two years. Amazingly, the company that met with much push-back from the music and broadcast industries over the years carries on without its founder.