Coming soon: S-1 filing.
Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
41–50 of 232 posts
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, and I would not be surprised if Apple basically times major announcements re: Apple Music (subscriber numbers, if good, or new product features, etc.) around Spotify's IPO date and first earnings call to kill the pricing on both front - if I were Apple, I know I would =)
Why would Apple care about Spotify's stock price?
Well it's a really dirty tactic, but it can be hard to retain top talent (who are largely rewarded with options/shares) if a company's stock price crashes.
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#43Woow really fight against Apple Music? There is nothing to fight against!
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any kind of business case for this - besides what looks like blind panic? Spotify raised $500m last year. Now it seems to think it needs to nearly double its existing > $1bn funding/debt pile so badly it's willing to settle for a loan-shark mugging. I'd guess the money isn't needed for new customers - more to stay afloat long enough to have some hope of getting to IPO and allowing the investors to get some o…
They clearly believe that they will die without this, and the wound taken allows them to survive.
I rather suspect they know they will die without this, and the more astute also probably realise they will die with it, but in the interim they can continue to draw good salaries and bonuses.
And for the institutions in the loan agreement that are banks, all they're doing is some extra book keeping to raise the money involved.
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#45Is it really just Apple? They have money to throw around, but not a well received product yet. Meanwhile, there's Play Music, Youtube Red, Soundcloud, Pandora, Bandcamp..
Things could change, but right now I think Google is more competitive because they offer two bundled services that are both superior in design (IMO). If Soundcloud can survive financially, they are very competitive for those seeking music discovery.
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#46I really like the "for you" section in apple music, but I'll probably switch back to Spotify because of the $5/month student offer.
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#47Paid on-demand streaming is such a crappy business that it's outsold by vinyl records. Selling music downloads is a real business, but streaming, not so much.
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#48"TPG and Dragoneer can sell their shares just 90 days after the IPO, before the 180-day lockup period ends for Spotify’s employees and other investors." Among many the bad terms disclosed in the article, IMO this is probably the worst - basically, this right is a license to cash out and torpedo the company within 3 months (just the right amount of time to see how the market reacts to Spotify's first earnings call as…
Would it not be possible for an employee to hedge/short-sell the stock using i.e an option?
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#49This doesn't seem that surprising.
2014 Revenue: $1.3 billion (up 45% from 2013)
2014 Net Loss: $197 million (up from $68 million loss in 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/business/media/as-spotify-...
Re: Spotify raises $1B in debt with devilish terms to fight Apple Music
#50Spotify waste so much money on their employees, who effectively do very little. I know a designer who has been there 2 years, basically sits in meetings and gets sent to different countries, and has added nothing to their portfolio. Yet gets reviews and raises and bonuses... Then there's all the parties they host for their employees, etc.
It's not a company I would invest in if I had any money to begin with.
Also that's not to say they all do nothing, some of the talks I've listened to from their Engineers are fascinating and have learned heaps. But it was a shitty decision to ditch the desktop app and rewrite it with no functionality .