Verizon Lurking Around Pandora?

The New York Post is reporting that Verizon is eyeing a possible $100 million investment in Pandora Media if the online music streamer fails to reach a deal this week for an outright sale to SiriusXM. Top Verizon exec Tim Armstrong could be a candidate for the Pandora board under one possible scenario, according to sources, with one insider noting that Pandora could benefit greatly from Verizon-owned AOL’s expertise in programmatic ad serving.

Sources tell the Post that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam isn’t weighing a full-on Pandora purchase at this stage since he’s still busy integrating his acquisition of Yahoo with AOL in the short term. However, the Post theorizes that Verizon could be interested in valuable data from Pandora’s 80 million, mostly young mobile users.

The Post confirmed on May 17 that SiriusXM was holding active conversations about an acquisition of Pandora, and sources say SiriusXM has been conducting due diligence on Pandora for the past few weeks. SiriusXM has recently been in discussions to buy Pandora for between $11 and $12 a share, valuing the company at around $2.8 billion, two sources close to the process told The Post. Oddly enough, no one from Pandora, Verizon or SiriusXM could be reached for comment.