The letter his firm, Corvex Capital, sent to the streaming radio service — pressing it to pursue a sale — sparked an optimistic 6.1 percent jump in Pandora shares on Tuesday.
But the letter also opened some eyes on Wall Street to the fact that the money-losing Oakland, Calif., company has been seeking a buyer for months — without success, sources said.
“Pandora has been for sale, and there are no buyers,” a high-ranking media banker told The NY Post.
The company’s shares have fallen 42 percent over the last 12 months.
Besides, Meister at this point cannot even force the company to once again seek a buyer.
That is because Pandora, at least according to Meister, tricked him into withdrawing from a proxy fight.
Meister, who owns a 9.9 percent stake in Pandora, on March 23 said he withdrew his notice to nominate Pandora directors “based on our understanding of your openness to considering all paths to enhance shareholder value,” he said in the Monday letter.
Pandora, days before the March 23 withdrawal, had pleased Meister by putting Anthony Vinciquerra, who had a role in selling Motorola Mobility, on its nine-member board.
Five days later, Pandora replaced CEO Brian McAndrews, whom Corvex liked, with Pandora Co-Founder Tim Westergren.
Meister said he had not been informed about the upcoming move when he withdrew from the proxy contest, and said in the letter he did not believe the timing of the CEO change was a coincidence.
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