Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sells $100m worth of Spotify shares
675,000 shares are being sold
Getty / Ilya S. Savenok
Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, is selling off $100 million worth of shares in Spotify, according to a Securities & Exchange Commission file published last Thursday.
675,000 shares are being sold, with 471,565 of these having been acquired via the open market on the day of 5 May 2022; Ek took to Twitter the following day to share that he’d purchased $50 million in Spotify stock.
In the SEC file, J.P. Morgan Securities is recognised as the broker for the sale, while it shows that D.G.E Investments Limited, an entity indirectly wholly owned by Ek, is selling the $100 million worth of stock.
Currently, the streaming platform’s share price stands at $149.28 on the NYSE, reaching its highest levels in over a year. Spotify’s market capitalization experienced a peak of up to $70.5 billion in February 2021, as reported by MBW, underwent a decline to about $14.5 billion, and now stands at around $27.95 billion. At the current share price, Ek’s total shareholding is valued at approximately $4.6 billion.
By the end of 2022, MBW reports that Ek held 31.93 million shares, making him the largest shareholder in Spotify with a 16.5 per cent stake. The majority of his shares are owned through holding companies, based in Cyprus, named D.G.E. Investments and D.G.E. Holding.
Spotify’s 2023 Q2 financial results shows €3.17 billion in total revenue, a 14 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase. However, the company still reported a net loss of €302 million for the quarter.
On a positive note, monthly active users (MAUs) increased by 36 million to 551 million and paid subscribers rose by 10 million to 220 million.
Ek hasn’t shied away from publicising his decisions at Spotify. In 2022, the Spotify CEO said in an investors call that Spotify’s “next wave of growth” was superfan monetisation. Also in 2022, when Kanye West fell under scrutiny for his views, Ek condemned Ye’s “awful” comments, but not his music, saying, “His music doesn’t violate our policy”.
Earlier this year, after six per cent of Spotify’s total staff were laid off due to cuts, Ek said “I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today.”
He has also been at the forefront of issues involving the use of AI in music production. In April, he assured artists and rights holders that the platform was working with record labels to address concerns over AI use in music.
