“Spotify officially filed paperwork for a public offering with the Security and Exchanges Commission on Wednesday,” writes Colin Stutz in Wednesday’s (2/28) Billboard.com. “The music streaming service will trade under the symbol ‘SPOT’ at the New York Stock Exchange. Among the information included in the regulatory paperwork, Spotify claimed a user base nearly double that of Apple Music, its closest competitor.… Spotify’s initial offering shares will not be underwritten, which means underwriters will not set any price to inform opening trades on the New York Stock Exchange.… Among Spotify’s principal shareholders, [co-founder and CEO Daniel] Ek personally controls 25.7 percent of the company’s ordinary shares… Sony Music Entertainment also, notably, controls 5.7 percent of Spotify’s outstanding shares…. The prospectus [notes] that music from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Merlin made up approximately 87 percent of streams in 2017…. Regarding risk factors, the filing also noted a ‘competitive advantage’ that Spotify’s competitors Apple and Google possess based on their ownership of app store platforms and their charging of in-application purchase fees, which are not being levied on their own applications…. Spotify said it would list ‘as soon as practicable after this registration statement is declared effective.’ ”
Posted March 1, 2018
