It's been a few weeks Daniel Ek.
Yesterday (April 23), SpotifyStock prices soared further 11% following the company's first quarter results announcement, in which it confirmed its largest ever quarterly operating profit.
That stock price boost has delivered Spotify market capitalization approx 60 billion USD at the close of trading on the NYSE yesterday, enough to exceed the market capitalization of the largest music copyright owner, Popular music group.
(UMG's market capitalization on Amsterdam Euronext is at approx 53.5 billion USD late yesterday, according to Y chart).
Spotify's stock price on the NYSE stabilized again today (April 24), decreasing by approx 7% at the close of the transaction… but not before Spotify CEO Ek converted into a mountain of small shares.
According to filings with the SEC discovered by MBW, Daniel Ek sold 400,000 unit share in Spotify earlier today, with a total market value of 118.8 million USD. JP Morgan acted as broker for the sale of Ek's shares.
This is the fourth time in the past 12 months ek cashed in some of his money Spotify Share:
Through these four transactions (including today's transaction), Ek has withdrawn approx 340.5 million USD in Spotify stock since last summer.
Ek's latest 118.8 million USD Withdrawal comes when one particular sector of the music business – music publishers – isn't feeling too enamored with Spotify.
Last week, Spotify confirmed that it does changed the formula through which it pays mechanical royalties to publishers and songwriters in the United States.
This change causes Spotify to reclassify its Premium subscriptions as “bunch of”as they provide users with access to both music and audiobook content.
This is not an arbitrary change: by reclassifying Premium subscriptions as “bunch of”According to a 2022 ruling by the United States Copyright Board, Spotify believes it can pay lower mechanical licensing fees for the use of music on its platform in the United States.
David the IsraeliCEO and President of the National Music Publishers Association, responded to the news of Spotify's furious reclassification of 'bundles' last week, commenting: “It seems Spotify has returned to attacking the very musicians who make its business possible.”
Israelite added: “Spotify's attempt to radically reduce payments to musicians by reclassifying its music service as an audiobook package is a cynical and potentially illegal move , to end our period of relative peace.
“We will not accept them sabotaging the deal we agreed in 2022 and are considering all options.”
Daniel Ek is the largest shareholder in Spotify by the end of 2023, with ownership/authorized ownership of 30.86 million common stock in the company, or 15.6% in total, according to SEC filings.
However, ek hold these shares through DGE Investment means, and among 30.86 million To be 16,632 million The last shares are owned by Tencent Corporation that thing Ek/DGE represented through an “irrevocable proxy”.
Discount these Tencent shares, by Ek Then, the ultimate individual ownership of common stock in SPOT as of December 2023 is 14.224 million shares (including warrants), which – judging by Spotify's current share price – has a cumulative value of slightly more than Spotify's current share price. 4 billion USD at the time of publishing this article.
Yesterday (April 23), Spotify Announcing first quarter 2024 resultsConfirming total revenue growth 21% YoY (in fixed currency) to 3.247 billion EUR.
The company has calculated 239 million paid subscribers globally at the end of March, up 3 million from the end of 2023.
The company's gross margin ended at 27.6% in Q1 2024, up from 25.2% in Q1 2023.
Terms profitSpotify announced operating income of 168 million euros (182.41 million USD), which it noted in its investor presentation was a “new quarterly high” and reflected “lower staffing, related costs and marketing spend.”Music business worldwide
