Pandora Crashes on Rumor of Streaming Apple Service

Like the child in the Willliam Tell legend, online radio operator Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE:P) has been standing in wait for quite a while, staring down what could be imminent death with the weight of an Apple on its head.

Not anymore.

Thursday, Pandora saw its "boom, headshot!" come in the late afternoon, when rumors surfaced that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) would be announcing a streaming music service during its third-quarter earnings conference call later that day. According to Bloomberg, Apple would announce it is working with music labels to launch the new online service by early 2013.

Shares of Pandora fell dramatically on the rumor, dropping from levels around $9.50 to choppy trading between $7.50 and $7.75. The drop was so dramatic that New York Stock Exchange circuit breaker meant to stop panic sell-offs was triggered twice within 10 minutes, temporarily halting trading.

Stock in the company, already off 44 percent for the year, hit a 52-week low of $7.32 and were seeing heavy, volatile back-and-forth during the last few minutes of the session.

Shares of Pandora Media Inc. recently sold for $8.20, down $1.09 for the day.