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Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

theguardian.com

31–40 of 203 posts

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#31
post #23

Spotify is a for-profit enterprise and if laying people off is the right financial choice then he's doing his job well. He can sell his shares when he feels like it.

Also clearly the buyers of these shares think it was right decision. As otherwise they would not be buying at this price.

It's not like the CFO has any more information than they do.

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#32
post #23

Spotify is a for-profit enterprise and if laying people off is the right financial choice then he's doing his job well. He can sell his shares when he feels like it.

Also clearly the buyers of these shares think it was right decision. As otherwise they would not be buying at this price.

[deleted]

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#33
post #9

Of course he does. Now why would anyone want to work for these guys at Spotify (should they ever hire again)?

To pay their bills. Such is the system that small businesses cant survive, and people are forced to work in large enterprises funded by massive amounts of venture funds. Without competition said enterprises can do whatever to employees. Those elected to ensure balance are rewarded well for their ignorance.

A bit like in communism where people could only work in large enterprises while small business owners have been wiped out.

Instead we should have hundreds of Spotify alternatives each focused on varying genres. Competition would solve not just working conditions but also artist pay and end user pricing.

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#34

Spotify is a for-profit enterprise and if laying people off is the right financial choice then he's doing his job well. He can sell his shares when he feels like it.

This is a fair assumption, but incomplete.

Its the C-suite management that makes all the decisions and reaps all the rewards, but when they make mistakes, they don't fire themselves, they fire employees, many who had no control of the strategic mis-steps of their leadership.

Sometimes the C-suite needs to be fired.

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#35

Isn't this considered insider trading? You'd think there should be a blackout period around any kind of layoff, similar to how they do with earnings.

He traded on publicly available information, didn't he? Like, literally, what's the difference between him or you logging into a trading platform and issuing a sell on Tuesday morning?

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#36

Spotify is a for-profit enterprise and if laying people off is the right financial choice then he's doing his job well. He can sell his shares when he feels like it.

Our society is inches away from extreme violence at all times and the relative peace and legitimacy of that society depends on securing broad consensus and consent of the governed and a reasonable distribution of resources. He can be killed and eaten for his protein content when someone feels like it too.

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#38

Why do so many tech executives seem to make the actual worst decisions possible when it comes to symbolic leadership?

Because at no point in recent history has any one of them suffered any kind of consequences of being utter avatar of greed and sociopathy.

Why bother when they'll even be defended like in this very thread?

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#39
It’s kind of weird to see people want to work at big corporations but then act surprised or salty about layoffs.

It’s nothing personal. You’re a line number even if you’re some leet coder. It’s a business, and it’s a strategy game of utilizing resources. You might have 400k TC but you’re not god you’re a resource.

If you think these things aren’t fair or suck, then you should try to move out of the leet coder path and get on the capital owner or business operator side.

Sorry but it’s kind of annoying to see people making 200k plus not get this.

Re: Spotify CFO cashes in £7.2M in shares after value surges on news of job cuts

#40

Spotify is a for-profit enterprise and if laying people off is the right financial choice then he's doing his job well. He can sell his shares when he feels like it.

If you agree with the narrative of shareholder primacy and are looking at short term outcomes then sure, nothing is wrong here. But this means that we're ignoring the harm that was done to the people that lost their income and the disruptions that the rest of the org will experience.

Layoffs can be devastating to the people that were terminated; a job loss is one of the higher stress events one can experience. If you take into account the larger impact than "shareholder value" then dumping stock to capture value is an abdication of responsibility on the CEO for over -hiring, and has terrible optics of financial gain right when a number of employees took it on the chin.

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