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).
In a converted Brooklyn warehouse, dozens of developers are the next internet of apps on the Ethereum network. Their work may be the foundation of all future transactions, says Joseph Lubin, the billionaire Ethereum co-founder behind the incubator Consensys. Cheddar went behind the scenes with Lubin to see how the future of the internet is being built on blockchain technology.
Teens whose families earn $30,000 or less a year are more likely to rely on Facebook for homework help than their wealthier peers, according to Pew Research Center study. This shows how students who may have less access to resources, "use Facebook to kind of get ahead," says Hanna Kozlowska, a reporter at Quartz.
Jessica Rolph, the co-founder and CEO of Lovevery, a subscription service for children's toys and books, says her company was borne out of her wish "meet my child where they were." The subscription service sends boxes every other month with age-appropriate items to help new parents and their babies get through those early, clumsy years.
The SEC has subpoenaed Tesla over CEO Elon Musk's tweets to take the company private, according to multiple media reports. John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting, and a former SEC enforcement attorney told Cheddar that there’s not enough information at this point to tell whether or not Musk intended to drive up the stock price by tweeting last week that he wanted to take Tesla private.
WOW! ー Wide Open West ー is a video, internet, and phone company that is a "challenger brand for every market," says the CEO Teresa Elder. Available in about 20 markets in the American South and Midwest, WOW! recently announced a content deal with Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need2Know for Wednesday, Aug. 15.
Saudi Arabia's interest in funding a buyout of Tesla shareholders is far from certain, said Maureen Farrell of the Wall Street Journal. But it's unclear, she told Cheddar, if the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund would have the capital to secure such a deal for the electric carmaker's CEO, Elon Musk.
As users disengage with social media, advertisers would be wise to shift their focus to mobile games, where consumers may be more receptive, says Adam Cohen-Aslatei, vice president of marketing at Jun Group. "People report being more focused, relaxed and more engaged in a mobile game as compared to people on social media," Cohen-Aslatei says.
Disabling location history on your phone isn't enough to stop Google from tracking your whereabouts, the Associated Press revealed. To ensure your location is not being saved, Wired magazine's Emily Dreyfuss tells you how to turn off "web and app activity" tracking in your Google account.
As students prepare to go back to school, Google introduces new ways for parents to monitor their children's screen time and use mobile devices as learning resources. LaToya Drake, a Google spokesperson and media outreach lead, discusses the company's new tools and what students and educators are searching for online as they return to the classroom.
