Satellite radio giant SiriusXM is purchasing Internet radio giant Pandora for $3.5 billion, the companies announced Monday.
The acquisition creates the “largest audio entertainment company,” according to a press release, as Pandora’s 70 million mostly active users join SiriusXM’s 36 million paid subscribers.
Pandora’s “powerful music platform will enable SiriusXM to significantly expand its presence beyond vehicles into the home and other mobile areas,” a press release adds.
Both companies will continue to exist following the deal’s completion in the first quarter of 2019, and there will be no immediate changes in the services offered to their respective subscriber bases.
Pandora launched in 2000 as automated music discovery platform, creating user-specific playlists based on positive and negative feedback to individual songs. In late 2016, Pandora launched a premium service allowing users to listen to songs and create specific playlists on demand.