This is not a good time to be a CEO, if this past week is any indication. First, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was asked to resign by major investors, and yesterday Pandora co-founder and CEO Tim Westergren is out. As he steps down from the CEO slot and off the board of directors, Pandora has asked CFO Naveen Chopra to serve as interim CEO. The search for a permanent CEO will begin immediately. Pandora also announced president Mike Herring and CMO Nick Bartle are leaving the company, and they will be appointing Jason Hirschhorn, the CEO of the ReDEF Group, a digital content curation company, to a vacant seat on the board.

Westergren returned to the struggling company in March 2016 to replace Brian McAndrews who was posting big losses. In fact, in his last quarter – the period ended March 31, 2016, Pandora reported a net loss of $57.4 million. After Westergren’s return, the company began undergoing major changes, including a partnership with Music Reports to manage mechanical licensing and royalty administration, the addition of popular podcasts This American Life and Serial, deals with two major music labels, the launch of Pandora Plus, the launch of Pandora Premium, and most recently, a $480 million investment by SiriusXM and the sale of Ticketfly to Eventbrite.

In spite of all of that positive change, and a 20 percent increase in subscribers in the first quarter of the year, it wasn’t enough to reverse Pandora’s significant losses, or enough to help Westergren keep his job. In that same quarter, Pandora reported a GAAP net loss of $132.3 million.

Roger Faxon, a member of the Pandora board of directors, explained the move in a company statement:

“Over the past several weeks, the board has taken a number of steps to refocus and reinforce Pandora. As listeners continue to move from traditional terrestrial radio to more dynamic and flexible offerings, it is the board’s belief that this transition continues to present a massive opportunity, and that Pandora is in an ideal position to capture an increasing share of this audience. With ‘digital radio’ at the core of our business, and both ‘Plus’ and ‘Premium’ as new, integral parts of our arsenal, Pandora now has all of the tools necessary to capitalize on this opportunity. With our comprehensive suite of offerings and a refortified balance sheet, we will be able to more effectively recruit listeners, and we will be able to provide them with more of the content they want and the services they desire in order to better retain them,” said Faxon.

Board member Tim Leiweke commented on Westergren’s departure:

“On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Tim for his vision and his many years of leadership that have created one of the most recognized brands in streaming music today. Tim stepped in to be CEO at a critical time for the company and was quickly able to reset relations with the major labels, launch our on-demand service, reconstitute the management team and refortify our balance sheet by securing an investment from Sirius XM. We support Tim’s desire to identify a new CEO for Pandora’s next stage,” Leiweke said.

As for Westergren, he said in the announcement that he was “incredibly proud of the company” he helped build.

“We invented a whole new way of enjoying and discovering music and in doing so, forever changed the listening experience for millions. I came back to the CEO role last year to drive transformation across the business. We accomplished far more than we anticipated. We rebuilt Pandora’s relationships with the music industry; launched a fantastic Premium on-demand service, and brought a host of tech innovations to our advertising business. With these in place, plus a strengthened balance sheet, I believe Pandora is perfectly poised for its next chapter,” said Westergren.

Pandora did not say what additional changes the company would make or what it meant by a “refortified balanced sheet.” Perhaps they are referring to SiriusXM’s sizable investment or the cash made from the Ticketfly sale, though they took a big hit on the sale compared to their initial investment.

At the time of the investment sale, SiriusXM was to add three individuals to the Pandora board, so we can anticipate those changes as well.

Insider Take:

Since Westergren’s return to the company, he made great strides in repairing relationships and continuing the company’s innovation by expanding its subscription offerings. However, the company’s financials continued to tank under his leadership. If SiriusXM had not offered its infusion of cash to Pandora, we wonder if Westergren might still be around. It seems their investment bought them a certain amount of control, and rightly so. They want to ensure their investment in the internet radio station was not wasted. It will be interesting to hear what Pandora is planning next to affect its transformation. A “refortified balance sheet” will not be enough to keep this company afloat.