Streaming: Spotify To Go Public On 3 April
This is finally happening. The music industry is going to see one of the most popular music streaming platform go IPO this April.
This is finally happening. The music industry is going to see one of the most popular music streaming platform go IPO this April.
Spotify goes IPO at NYSE
When it was just talk in the past, it’s now real.
The streaming music business is seeing one of the most important day in the history of the music industry where Spotify will officially go public on 3 April, 2018.
Just days ago, Paul Vogel, Spotify’s Head of Investor Relations announced that the company will publicly list shares on the NYSE through the usual ‘direct listing; come 3 April, Tuesday.
The launch day will see Spotify’s Chairman and CEO – Daniel Ek – present a live presentation to current and potential investors in New York.
The company’s current valuation sits above USD$20bn according to predictions from some private share trades between the company and investors. And through a cumulative ownership stake involving between 10% and 20% of the streaming company, it is believed that Spotify is jointly owned somewhere around USD$2bn and USD$3bn by the 3 major music companies – U niversal, Sony and Warner – and Merlin.
Sony now holds 5.7% – the biggest industry shareholder in Spotify.
Moving forward to attracting more investors, Vogel has also said that the company’s decision to float via a direct listing so that it would be “more transparent and more accessible to a wider range of investors” rather than the traditional IPO.
Announcement for Q1 2018 financial guidance is confirmed for the week before trading starts, on 26 March.
Concluding 2017, Spotify has disclosed its latest numbers – 71m paying subscribers and 159m monthly active users (MAUs).
