- Ahead of its earnings after the bell, Pandora Media (NYSE:P) has given up a bump fueled by a buyout-offer story, now down 0.7%.
- It had risen as much as 10.3% (to $13.62) following a report that Liberty Media (LMCA -0.1%) had floated a $15/share offer to buy the company and combine it with Sirius XM (SIRI -0.2%).
- Combining the two radio services could benefit from "hidden synergies," says Piper Jaffray's Stan Meyers. Sirius XM could take advantage of a strong ad sales team as it thinks about an ad-supported service, and it could tap a data-rich environment at Pandora to convert some of that company's 100M-plus users into paid customers.
- Meyers has Overweight ratings on both companies and a price target of $5.25 on SIRI (implying 26% upside) and a target of $18 on Pandora (47% upside, and closer to Pandora's feelings of true value around $20/share).
- Liberty Sirius XM Group shares: LSXMA +0.4%; LSXMB +0.4%; LSXMK -0.1%.