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Leading webcaster (and public company) Pandora plans to sell 10 million more shares of stock as a "follow on" offering, to raise $279 million for "general corporate purposes." The company's biggest investor shareholder, Crosslink Capital, also plans to sell 4 million shares it holds.

And though it says it has nothing in the works, Pandora may use some of the money it raises "for potential acquisitions of businesses, products or technologies."

Within its announcement of the proposed offering, Pandora warned it doesn't "expect to be able to sustain (the) rapid growth in both listener hours and advertising revenue" it has enjoyed in the last few years -- meaning it expects to continue to lose money in the near future. The company continues to battle sound recording and composition copyright owners over royalties (by far its largest expenses, consuming more than half the company's revenue), and faces perhaps its biggest competitive test yet with tomorrow's launch of Apple's iTunes Radio. 

Read more on this in The Wall Street Journal here, Tom Taylor Now here, and from Pandora here.

Webcaster Pandora reported record earnings yesterday for its second quarter, $162 million (up 58% from a year ago). Executives say the growth was driven by mobile -- its total mobile revenue went up 92% year-over-year to $116.0 million. Pandora -- says eMarketer -- is now behind only Google and Facebook as the third largest generator of mobile ad revenue. Total ad revenue was $128.5 million, a 44% increase. And local sales quadrupled in 2Q over last year.

Over the last quarter, listeners tuned in for 3.88 billion hours, giving Pandora a 7.08% share of all radio listening in the U.S. The service now has 71.2 million regular users.

"Pandora has quickly become the largest radio station in nearly every major market in America," CFO Mike Herring told analysts on the earnings call.

Positive earnings and usage growth were apparently overshadowed by Pandora's widened second-quarter loss, and the webcaster's narrowed guidance for third-quarter earnings. Pandora stock fell in after-hours trading.

Read Pandora's press release here, and excellent coverage from Tom Taylor Now here.