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The offer came from Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, whose company controls Sirius XM, but was more of a "fishing expedition" than a formal offer, sources told the Journal. Pandora's board "rebuffed the advance," primarily because it believes the company's value is closer to $20 per share.
The sources also said Pandora had courted other buyers like Apple and Amazon.
Pandora is a company in transition. In March, Pandora brought back founder Tim Westergren to be its CEO and help usher in an on-demand product to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. The company has indicated that it will be a big part of its future, but the public, and Wall Street, is waiting to see whether it will be a hit or a flop.
Some don't want to wait. In May, activist investor Corvex pushed for Pandora to sell itself.
"We have become increasingly concerned that the company may be pursuing a costly and uncertain business plan, without a thorough evaluation of all shareholder value-maximizing alternatives," Corvex's Keith Meister wrote in a letter to Pandora's board at the time.