OR it could have gone something like this:
Cook: Is that iRadio app ready yet?
Devs: Yes
Cook: If it is another iMaps you will all be fired. Is it ready?
Devs: Ummm....no
Cook: Pull the plug, kill it, and don't bother me again until it is 110% perfect!!
Devs: But we already have the code in iTunes and iOS 6
Cook: Then hide it...bury it...handle it!
1 hour later
Cook: How much cash do we have?
CFO: 96 billion
Cook: What is Pandora's market cap?
CFO: 2 billion
Cook: I'll call you later...
1 minute later (talking to himself)
Cook 1: Let's see...risk another iMaps or spend 4% of our net cash on a proven business that is #1 on Android, top 3 on Apple, and has the 3rd highest RPMs of any mobile behind FB and GOOG.
Cook 2: Music Genome Project is a vary valuable proprietary asset and will cockblock AMZN, GOOG, FB and anyone else for a long time.
Cook 1: Plus we could use our muscle and political influence to push this Internet Fairness thing over the top
Cook 2: So...$4 billion cash and a sure winner and instant mobile cred and RPMs or roll the dice with another iMaps
Cook 1: Pandora could also feed iTunes a steady diet of buyers who would click "Buy It Now" while listening to songs they liked on Apple devices while listening to an Apple owned Pandora app...
Cook 2: I Like it...
Cook 1. I LOVE it...
1 minute later
Cook: Work up a deal to buy Pandora
CFO: How much?
Cook: Start at $15...take it to $20 if you need to and give Westergren a juicy piece. We will keep Kennedy on as Vice President in charge of the new iMobile division
CFO: I'll put something together...