I Believe Castle and Sivers are largely right on Pandora. But there is an alternative hypothesis to consider. The very public nature of Pandora’s fight against Songwriters and Performers was designed to keep their stock price high while insiders sold millions in stock. By some measure the stock compensation to executives has reached 1//2 a billion dollars. Quite rich for a company that continues to lose money. Now that court rulings are going against them -Pandora lost to BMI and the Turtles case looks very bad for them- they are silent on these issues. Why? To keep their stock prices high. I continue to maintain that Pandora is no longer simply an issue for songwriters and performers. I believe the SEC should investigate on behalf of shareholders.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A common criticism of both public and private companies that waste the stockholder’s money is “where was the board?” The company’s board of directors are charged by stockholders with providing the first line of oversight over a runaway executive team that act against the company’s interest.
If the board fails in its role, one of the ways that individual stockholders can call executives and board members to account is by attending an annual meeting. Most of the attending stockholders have already voted by proxy (often by proxies given to vote in line with recommendations of the company’s board of directors–who are usually a slate approved by the company’s senior management. Unfortunately for the attending stockholders, given the proxy system, voting at an annual meeting is quite the kabuki dance as…
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The Trichordist 