Its fiscal Q3 2012 (yes, they march to the beat of a different calendar) revenue grew 99% YOY; quarterly total listener hours of 2.1 billion grew 104% YOY; and its 66% share of U.S. Internet radio grew from 53% in Q3 ’11. Total revenues for the quarter rose to $75.01 million from $37.69 million in the prior year quarter. However, Pandora’s Q3 profit fell 39% amid increased expenses for content acquisition. Content acquisition costs more than doubled to $37.6 million during the quarter.
For Q3, ad revenue was $66.0 million, a 102% YOY increase. Subscription and other revenue was $9.0 million, an 80% YOY increase.
Listen to Joe Kennedy, Chairman, President & CEO of Pandora’s comments on the call. He said the share of the current US radio market is currently 4.3% and still rivals top-rated stations in many markets. He also detailed more in-car announcements and focused in on the local sales forces they are deploying. Click on the audio, below.
| Pandora Audio: |
Q3 net income attributable to common stockholders was $0.6 million or break even per share, compared to a loss of $1.77 million or $0.15 per share in the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP net income per common share was $0.02, up from $0.01 in the year ago quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.01 per share for the quarter.
For Q4, revenue is expected to be in the range of $80 million to $84 million. Non-GAAP net loss per common share is expected to be between $0.04 and $0.02. Analysts expect the company to report a loss of $0.02 per share on revenues of $82.25 million for Q4.
For fiscal 2012, non-GAAP net loss per common share is now expected to be between $0.05 and $0.02, an improvement from prior guidance of negative $0.07 and $0.05. Revenue for fiscal 2012 is expected to be in the range of $273 million to $277 million, compared to prior outlook of $270 million – $275 million.
Analysts expected the company to report a loss of $0.06 per share on revenues of $272.08 million for fiscal 2012.
Non-GAAP net income per fully diluted common share was $0.02, excluding approximately $2.7 million in stock-based compensation.
Pandora ended Q3 with $90.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, compared with $95.3 million at the end of the prior quarter. For Q3 of fiscal 2012, it generated approximately $111K in cash from operating activities, compared to $163K generated in the year-ago quarter. On a fiscal YTD basis, Pandora generated approximately $3.5 million in cash from operating activities compared to generating $2.2 million in cash from operating activities in the year ago period.
Revenue is expected to be in the range of $80 million to $84 million in Q4. Non-GAAP net loss per common share is expected to be between negative ($0.04) and negative ($0.02).
For FY 2012, revenue is expected to be in the range of $273 million to $277 million. Non-GAAP net loss per common share is expected to be between negative ($0.05) and negative ($0.02), an improvement from prior guidance of negative ($0.07) and negative ($0.05).
RBR-TVBR observation: Content acquisition costs more than doubled during the quarter. The yin-yang is the more users it attracts, the more it must pay labels in licensing fees. But the more streaming, the more ad inventory they have available to sell.
