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Spotify’s senior executives and board members are selling $1.25bn worth of the company’s stock by 2024 – including $900m in payouts for its two co-founders – as they take advantage of rising music streamer share price.
A total of $1.25bn was cashed out by around 20 executives and board members during the year, with stock sales rising in November and December, according to a Financial Times analysis of filings. US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shares in Spotify, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will almost triple by 2024, hovering close to a $100bn market capitalization. This is a sharp change from 2022 and 2023 when the group’s share price fell to an all-time low, trading at a market capitalization of less than $20bn.
Longtime employees and top executives are now reaping the financial rewards. Taken together, the co-founders’ transactions put their stock earnings at the top level of corporate leadership. Palantir founder Alex Karp and computer scion Michael Dell also made more than $1bn in sales this year, SEC filings show.
Some of Spotify’s share sales were executed in accordance with pre-arranged divestiture plans that typically involved chief executives being paid in company stock, while others were not, securities filings show. “As part of their long-term financial planning, several Spotify executives are selling some of their Spotify shares,” a company spokesperson said.
Chief executive Daniel Ek, who founded Spotify in Sweden in 2006 with Martin Lorentzon, has sold nearly $350 million worth of stock in 2024. He sold the shares on December 11, when he cashed out the $28 million. Bloomberg estimates Ek’s net worth at over $7bn.
Lorentzon, who remains on Spotify’s board, sold more than $550m worth of stock by 2024, per SEC filings.
Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s chief product and technology officer, who has been with the company since 2009, sold more than $106 million in stock in 2024.
Chief human resources officer Katarina Berg sold $38m worth of stock, while chief business officer Alex Norström reaped $63mn from stock sales during the year.
Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s head of public relations, who joined the company from retailer Target in 2017, has sold more than $6m of stock this year.
Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos, who has sat on Spotify’s board since 2016, made $6 million from selling his Spotify stock this year.
Spotify and Netflix are ahead of their competition in music and television, emerging as the undeniable winners of the “streaming wars”.
Wall Street rewarded Ek for a newfound focus on profitability. After firing a quarter of its staff in 2023 and raising subscription prices, Spotify is profitable every quarter in 2024. It does so without sacrificing subscriber growth. The streaming group continues to add customers at a rapid pace, even as it raises prices in many countries.
Bank of America analysts in November raised their stock forecast for Spotify, noting “unbelievable” profit margin performance this year.
“Spotify has long had an incredibly strong product offering and growth opportunity,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote. “In 2024, we start to see the opportunity for profit.”