Biz Break: IPO frenzy? Pandora raises its expected offering price

Today: Online radio upstart Pandora raises its expected IPOprice. Plus: More Silicon Valley headlines. And: The tech-heavyNasdaq and other major indexes slump.

Pandora's IPO

Capitalizing on a wave of frenzied investor interest in socialmedia upstarts, Internet radio service Pandora Media has increasedthe value of its expected initial public offering.

In a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission,the Oakland company disclosed that it now expects to sell its stockto the public at a range of $10 to $12 a share. According to ourfriends at The Associated Press, Pandora's previous expected rangewas $7 to $9 a share.

At $12 a share, Pandora would raise about $72 million.

Pandora -- which wants to sell its stock under a coveted single-letter ticker symbol, "P," on the New York Stock Exchange -- will beselling 6 million shares. Pandora investors, meanwhile, plan to sell8.7 million shares, bringing the total number of IPO shares to 14.7million. Earlier, Pandora and existing investors had planned to sell13.7 million shares, according to AP.

Underwriters have the option of selling an 2.2 million additionalshares from Pandora. Including those shares, the total proceeds forPandora, selling stockholders and the IPO underwriters could be asmuch as $202.6 million.

Pandora's IPO -- expected next week, according to AP -- wouldfollow a successful trading debut by LinkedIn, the Mountain Viewcompany that operates a professional networking website. LinkedIn'sshares more than doubled in their trading debut from the IPO price,which itself was raised from an earlier expected price. (LinkedInstock, by the way, finished regular trading today at $72.83, up 82cents, or 1.1 percent, from Thursday's closing price.)

Last month, Chicago daily deals upstart Groupon revealed that itwill be seeking $750 million in its IPO.

We keep reading reports that San Francisco social games pioneerZynga is in talks with investment bankers and could file for an IPOsometime this month. Palo Alto social networking powerhouse Facebookand San Francisco microblogging service Twitter also are expected tohave their own IPOs, perhaps in the next year or so.

More Silicon Valley headlines

eBay: What happens in Delaware can stay in Delaware. According toan AP report, a federal judge has ruled that businesses that areincorporated in Delaware can be sued in that state.

In a ruling involving two separate lawsuits, Judge Sue Robinsonturned down requests from eBay (EBAY) and several video gamecompanies to move the legal disputes to California, where thebusinesses have their headquarters. (While online auction powerhouseeBay is based in San Jose, like numerous corporate giants, it'slegally incorporated in Delaware.)

Santa Clara: The city's Silicon Valley Power utility is No. 1 inits use of solar power, according to a ranking by the Solar ElectricPower Association.

According to a survey cited in a Merc report today, SiliconValley Power's energy mix includes 39.9 watts of solar power percustomer, more than any other utility. Sunny (well, not as much asusual so far this month) Santa Clara is home to chip behemoth Intel(INTC) and other Silicon Valley tech names.

Giant Northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric,meanwhile, is No. 1 in total solar power generated, at 157.3megawatts. Per customer, PG&E is No. 5 on the solar industry group'slist.

Silicon Valley tech stocks

Down: Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Oracle (ORCL), Intel, CiscoSystems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), VMware, eBay, Gilead Sciences(GILD), Yahoo (YHOO) and most Silicon Valley tech stocks were lowertoday.

For that matter, the major indexes also slumped as investorscontinued to worry about the strength of the economic recovery.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 41.14, or 1.5percent, to 2,643.73.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 172.45, or 1.4percent, to 11,951.91. (The Dow fell below 12,000 for the first timesince March, according to AP.)

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 18.02,or 1.4 percent, to 1,270.98.

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, asummary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The AssociatedPress, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russellat 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.