This isn't overshadowed, they filed in February and was one of the first of the current crop to file. Today they just set the share price.

Smart play: Pandora's launching their IPO before the other big players start moving. With Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player coming into the market, Pandora's trying to get their offering done before competition gets fierce.

Feels like Groupon is doing something similar. With Google and Facebook moving closer into local deals and LivingSocial nipping at its heels, its only a matter of time before Groupon starts feeling the heat.

Pretty damn smart considering that they had the foresight of all this, when they filed for IPO in February.

Google's $6B offer for Groupon was the catalyst, not some "foresight"... Groupon thought they could get better from an IPO than going with Google.

He was referring to Pandora, the ones that filed in February.

They're very different from amazon, google, and apple's current/coming offerings as they don't offer streaming on demand; they're a radio service. Even if there were 20 different on demand offerings, their business would still be valid as they're really selling their selection algorithms.

Ridiculous price, though. $1B? Seems very high for a service that only provides radio.

I think it has more to do with the end of QE2. Free money is ending, and asset prices are going to reflect that in the near future.

Don't forget Amazon Local too.

Tangent: Their ticker will be "P."? Are there any other labels with punctuation in it?

The ticker is "P", not "P.". :)

The rise of "logical punctuation"?

I was surprised that they got a single letter ticker symbol, so I looked up the history. It turns out that P used to be for Phillips Oil, which gave up the symbol when they merged with Conoco.

I'm amused by the fact that a tech company is taking an oil company's ticker.

I loved Pandora for the brief amount of time that I could use it "legally".

As long as I continue to get this message:

"Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S."

Sure, I have my Linode and could use Pandora, if I really wanted, but not everybody in Europe or elsewhere outside US wants to jump through hoops just to use some service.

Relevant: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2440

When is their stock going on the market? I couldn't find it in the article.

They aren't allowed to announce things like that. Although eventually a pundit will piece it together

Now, if they were only (officially) available in germany :(

I've never been a fan of Pandora. Usually my stations end up sounding like a typical classic rock FM station. The commercials they have on their site for the free service is almost as bad as FM radio commercials.

It all depends on what bands you select at the beginning and what songs you favorite.

Agreed. You need to remember that all the stations are separate objects. So, on your techno stations, don't favorite soft rock. Oh, and pony up the cash for the paid service; it is worth every penny to not have commercials for business cards.

No last.fm IPO?

last.fm is part of CBS Interactive. If you like, you can buy stock in CBS right now.

Right after the HN IPO.

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