Pandora Jukebox Collects a Lot of Coin for Some Investors

Technology Erik Sherman 15/06/2011

Pandora Media (P) stock will start trading today at $16 a share, if the Wall Street Journal's sources are right. That's well above the $12 share price the company expected in an SEC filing just last Friday. And while that's not near what LinkedIn (LNKD) was able to command with a $4.5 billion valuation at its opening, it will still make a number of people wealthy, at least by Main Street if not Silicon Valley standards. But who makes out with the most?

The big winner, of course, is Pandora itself. It has registered 16,886,600 shares. At $16 each, that's just north of $270 million, giving the company cash it needs to keep scaling its business so that it becomes profitable.

After that, the high tech success mythos says the founders make out like bandits. Not quite. As the San Francisco Chronicle points out, co-founder Tim Westergren helped start Pandora in 1999 and early investors took huge stakes, putting him far down the list of the big beneficiaries. Hey, nothing like putting the screws to people when you can, eh? It's a wonder he didn't have to offer his first borne. Still, he has 3.6 million shares, or 2.27 percent of the company, worth $57.6 million. Another co-founder, Will Glaser, has 3 million shares, worth $48 million.

So who are the top IPO lottery winners? Here are two lists, one of companies and one of individuals, along with the number of shares and the value.

Companies

  • Crosslink Capital -- 35 million shares, $560 million
  • Walden Venture Capital -- 28.5 million shares, $456 million
  • Greylock Partners -- 21.5 million shares, $344 million
  • Labrador Ventures V-B -- 12.9 million shares, $206 million
  • Hearst Corporation -- 8.7 million shares, $139 million
  • GGV Capital -- 7.9 million shares, $126 million
  • King Street Acquisition -- 7 million shares, $112 million
Individuals
  • Director James M. P. Feuille, 35 million shares, $560 million
  • Director Larry Marcus, 28.5 million shares, $456 million
  • Director David Sze, 21.5 million shares, $344 million
  • CEO Joseph Kennedy, 4.2 million shares, $67.2 million
  • Co-founder Tim Westergren, 3.6 million shares, $57.6 million
  • Co-founder Will Glaser, 3 million shares, $48 million
  • CTO Thomas Conrad, 2.6 million shares, $41.6 million
  • Director, independent investor, entrepreneur, and winner of a technical achieve Grammy Peter Gotcher, 1.6 million shares, $25.6 million
  • EVP, Business and Corporate Development Jessica Steel, 1.4 million shares, $22.4 million
  • Venture capitalist Martial Chaillet, 1.3 million shares, $20.8 million
  • Director and entertainment media power figure Peter Chernin, 1.2 million shares, $19.2 million
  • Director and private investor Robert Kavner, 1.1 million shares, $17.6 million
Notice that the very top individuals and companies have similar amounts of stock? No surprise. Feuille is a general partner of Crosslink, Marcus is managing director of Walden Venture, and Sze is with Greylock. So the cost of getting those organizations involved was massive: at least $1.12 billion associated with Crosslink, $912 million with Walden, and $688 million with Greylock.

Related:

  • Pandora's Cost of Music Isn't the IPO Problem Critics Think
  • LinkedIn IPO Inflates the Tech Bubble
  • Compared To LinkedIn, Pandora Is Undervalued. Compared To Reality--
  • Pandora's Business Model Looks Like a Suicide Pact
Image: Flickr user Goldberg, CC 2.0. Erik Sherman

Erik Sherman is a widely published writer and editor who also does select ghosting and corporate work. The views expressed in this column belong to Sherman and do not represent the views of CBS Interactive. Follow him on Twitter at @ErikSherman or on Facebook.

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