Pandora Confirms CEO and Two Other Execs Stepping Down and Closes Service in ANZ (Jun 27, 2017)

The main news item linked below just confirms the reports from over the weekend which I covered yesterday, which suggested Tim Westergren would be stepping down shortly. In the end, it seems he’s stepping down both as CEO and from the board immediately, rather than sticking around, so the CFO will take his place. One thing that wasn’t reported over the weekend is that two other execs – the President and CMO – are also leaving. And lastly, former Viacom, Sling Media and News Corp exec and current media commentator Jason Hirschhorn is joining the board. One quick note: though Recode makes it sound like Hirschhorn is replacing Westergren on the board, Pandora’s press release makes clear he’s filling another recently created opening on the board (which I take to be replacing Pete Gotcher, who stepped down in May). The fact that other execs are also leaving reinforces my sense from yesterday that all this is driven by a clash with soon to be part-owners SiriusXM, but it’s still not entirely clear whether they truly jumped or were pushed. Either way, I continue to be believe we’ll see some big changes. On that note, Australian site Ad News reported that Pandora would shortly shut down its operations in Australia and New Zealand, and Billboard later got confirmation from the company that that’s the case. That would be just the kind of strategic refocusing I’d expect to see over the next few weeks and months.

via Recode

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• Pandora

• Executives

• Streaming is Saving Music

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