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).
Apple and Snap reported earnings with wildly different results. Apple beat expectations on earnings and revenue, bolstered by strong iPhone sales, international growth, and an increase in wearables. The iPhone X was Apple's best-selling phone last quarter, putting rumors to rest that it would discontinue the phone.
On the other hand, Snap had a pretty disappointing quarter, missing Wall Street estimates on revenue and user growth. The unpopular redesign to the Snapchat app likely contributed to slower than expected daily active user growth.
Facebook's F8 developer conference is underway in San Jose, California. Cheddar's Alex Heath sat down with Ime Archibong, Facebook's VP of Partnerships, at the conference to discuss how the company is changing its data practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
"We have a really strong conviction that VR is the most incredible social entertainment platform there could be," says Hugo Barra, Vice President of Virtual Reality at the social media giant. The new Oculus Go lets users watch movies, sports games, or concerts together, and even "hang out" and play board games, Barra tells Cheddar's Alex Heath.
Facebook said it will resume its process of reviewing third-party apps using new, tighter controls after the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed holes in the social network's data privacy protocols.
Telecom giant Verizon has been angling to get a bigger slice of the digital content industry, because these days people are leap-frogging cable networks altogether and going straight to internet streaming, says Chris Carey, Chief Strategy Officer for Verizon Digital Media Services. "This year, and in the next three to four years, all the technology has been solved for, so essentially all of the television distribution services are no longer necessary," he tells Cheddar.
The film and TV studio known for the "Hunger Games" has invested heavily in acquiring game developers and esports franchises. "I think the hardest thing to do in media, and probably the most expensive thing to do, is to launch a globally successful video game," says Peter Levin, President of Interactive Ventures, a unit of the studio.
The platform recently surpassed five million home and apartment listings with plans to keep growing that space, says Gillian Tans, CEO of the unit.
Apple and Snap reported earnings today. By in large, Apple beat across the board while Snap came up short. Earnings per share and revenue reports below:
Snap
EPS: adjusted -$0.17 vs. -$0.17
Revenue: $230.7 million vs. $244.48 million
Apple
EPS: $2.73 vs. estimate $2.67
Revenue: $61.1 billion vs. estimate $60.84 billion
In the last few years, Philips has invested in transforming itself from an electronics company to a pioneer in digital health. The company wants to "give you back control of your own health" with its innovative medical devices and AI, says Joroen Tas, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at the Dutch company.
The tech giant showed that even weaker-than-expected iPhone sales can't slow the technology giant down. The company reported strong second-quarter earnings Tuesday, with more than $61 billion in revenue.
The social media company couldn't recover from the backlash over its redesign, posting a miss on both revenue and user growth.
