Spotify’s opening number seemed to be music to the market’s ears…at least at first.
The streaming company made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday afternoon at more than $165 a pop, pegging its valuation at roughly $29.5 billion.
Over the course of the day, though, that price slipped to about $149, down about 12 percent from the highs of the day, but still well above the $132 a share reference price.
Spotify’s unconventional choice of a direct listing, instead of a traditional IPO, had investors and experts bracing for a roller-coaster ride on Tuesday.
“I thought we were going to see a lot of spikes up and down and up and down,” said Dan Primack, business reporter at Axios. But “it hasn’t been all over the place.”
This smoother-than-expected listing raises the question of whether more companies will follow in Spotify’s footsteps in the future.
“It’s not the right path for all,” Stacey Cunningham, COO of the New York Stock Exchange, told Cheddar before the stock started trading. “There are some unique factors for [Spotify].
“They don’t need to raise capital, so going through the IPO process isn’t something that was important to them.”
Spotify was much more interested in “providing that liquidity event for their shareholders...to have a currency...to do additional M&A deals going forward,” explained Cunningham.
So what’s in store for Spotify’s future?
Fam Mirza, one of the company’s earlier investors, told Cheddar he wouldn’t sell his shares in the listing, because he has faith in where the company is headed.
“They’re so amazing at entering new markets...They can still scale it, and then they get to those bottom line revenues.”
Mirza also doesn’t consider Apple, even as it gains ground in the space, as a real threat. After all, he pointed out, the tech giant has had plenty of opportunity to overtake it.
“Everybody has an iPhone. So as soon as Apple launched Apple Music...why hasn’t every single person who has an iPhone signed on to Apple Music?”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/spotifys-unique-relationship-with-wall-street).
As technology and social media exacerbate the spread of misinformation, much of the burden is on individuals to keep themselves informed, said Shiv Singh, author of "Savvy: Navigating Fake Companies, Fake Leaders and Fake News in the Post-Trust Era."
What does it mean to trust something -- or someone? A new book looks at trust and how it's eroding because of our current culture. Shiv Singh, co-author of "Savvy," talked to Cheddar about how the problem has developed and how it's impacting our daily lives.
The theme of Bill and Melinda Gates' annual letter for 2019 is "surprise." The letter, released Tuesday, acts as a roadmap for how the Gates Foundation plans to invest in technology that will help make the world a better place in the years to come. And, as Melinda Gates told Cheddar in an interview, it starts with poop.
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Mark Zuckerberg has both a champion and a critic in Roger McNamee.For some of the formative years in the Facebook CEO's early career, the famed investor served as a mentor. For the past few, McNamee has been a thorn in Zuckerberg’s side. McNamee has said he’s spoken out so strongly against Facebook because he feels "guilty" about the monster he helped to create, and wants to do everything he can to tame it. But he has never called for him to step down. Through McNamee's rose-tinted glasses, with the right mix of moral decision-making and regulation, Facebook can and will finish on the right side of history.
IBM in partnership with its subsidiary, The Weather Company, is using artificial intelligence and predictive technology to mitigate power outages during extreme weather conditions. But Weather Company CEO Cameron Clayton says the technology could have major implications for utilities companies that are struggling to keep up with increasingly unpredictable weather.
