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Spotify files for its IPO

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Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#11
post #3

Crazy timing with them just getting hit with a $1.6B lawsuit. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-h...

I wonder if the lawsuit was purposefully timed near the IPO announcement, in an attempt to heap extra pressure on Spotify to settle quickly.

This is almost certainly the case.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#13
post #3

Crazy timing with them just getting hit with a $1.6B lawsuit. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-h...

I wonder if the lawsuit was purposefully timed near the IPO announcement, in an attempt to heap extra pressure on Spotify to settle quickly.

Yes, that's precisely how lawsuit strategy works.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#14
Isn't the point of an IPO generally to raise funds? In this case, it's just allowing people to sell their shares to the public, right? From the company standpoint, this is almost certainly a negative: additional oversight & reporting to do, no funds raised. I guess a positive is that shareholders can cash out, but as an investor, isn't that a giant red flag?

I guess as an investor, I don't see why I'd buy Spotify shares from an existing shareholder -- my "investment" is not going to the company, it's a bit like buying shares on the market of a mature company, except Spotify isn't that -- it's a money-hole with a highly questionable future. Is there any reason for someone to buy existing shares to expect things to turn around? They aren't getting a capital infusion, it's business as usual except with the additional burden of being a public company.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#15
post #5

They announced that this was coming a while ago, but I’m curious- is there any financial advantage to them IPOing now with respect to the lawsuit? Like say if the lawsuit cleans them out, does being a publicly listed company vs a private one make for a different outcome? Looking to hear from someone who’d have some domain knowledge on this stuff. EDIT: Or possibly the other way around, does this allow them to finance…

I think it's pretty common to have lawsuits against companies while they are filing for IPO's.

Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba are some popular examples you might want to read about.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#16
post #3

Crazy timing with them just getting hit with a $1.6B lawsuit. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-h...

I wonder if the lawsuit was purposefully timed near the IPO announcement, in an attempt to heap extra pressure on Spotify to settle quickly.

I think that's spot on. They are holding the stock price for ransom.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#17
post #3

Crazy timing with them just getting hit with a $1.6B lawsuit. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spotify-lawsuit/spotify-h...

I can't really figure out what the merits of the case are, or get an idea who these folks are. Not a lot written about them, even though they have been around for some time.

Has spotify really been playing these major artists without permission? Or is there more to the story?

Not unusual to file for 10x what you think you might collect in the end. If there really are damages, will Spotify just give them 160 million in stock?

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#18
Spotify has been doing one feature wrong for as long as I can recall: The Previous Track button will always navigate to the previous track in the list, no matter what you played before, and if there is nothing in the playlist before that track then the button effectively does nothing. Come on! PREV stands for Previous not List Index - 1. Other than that, Spotify works well enough that I do appreciate the service, even if it smells of monopoly.

Re: Spotify files for its IPO

#19
post #18

Spotify has been doing one feature wrong for as long as I can recall: The Previous Track button will always navigate to the previous track in the list, no matter what you played before, and if there is nothing in the playlist before that track then the button effectively does nothing. Come on! PREV stands for Previous not List Index - 1. Other than that, Spotify works well enough that I do appreciate the service, eve…

35% [1] is a good market share but certainly no monopoly. Also, some of the competitors are extremely powerful players that are able to put up a fight

[1] https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/announcin...

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