We’re gonna go ahead and guess that Daniel Ek had a Holiday to remember.
Spotify‘s Swedish co-founder and CEO cashed out USD $27.72 million in company shares on December 23 – a handsome boost to anyone’s late-festive-gift budget.
Indeed, across the course of December, according to SEC filings reviewed by MBW, Ek cashed out some $93 million in SPOT share sales.
Those sales took place across three transactions: approximately $37 million was banked on December 4, followed by $28.3 million on December 11, and that $27.7 million cash-out on December 23.
Regular MBW readers will know we closely monitored Spotify share sales by Ek and his management team in 2024 – a year that saw SPOT’s stock price rise to record levels on the NYSE.
In late November, we calculated that Ek and his fellow Spotify co-founder, Martin Lorentzon, had jointly cashed out around $840 million in 2024 to date.
With Ek’s December sales now taken into account, that figure – for the full year of 2024 – rises close to a billion dollars, at $932.8 million.
In total, Ek cashed out shares carrying an aggregate market value of $376 million in 2024.
Lorentzon’s share sales, often conducted via his Rosello company, amounted to $556.8 million across 2024. (Unlike Ek, Lorentzon didn’t cash out any shares in December.)
Another executive to have enjoyed a lucrative 2024 thanks to Spotify shares is Barry McCarthy.
McCarthy, Spotify’s former CFO (and continuing board member), cashed out shares with an aggregate market value of just over USD $50 million last year, according to SEC filings.
McCarthy joined Ek in selling some shares in December, dumping 21,000 ordinary units of Spotify stock for $10.17 million.
Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer, Dustee Jenkins, also cashed out some stock in December, selling 10,399 shares at an aggregate market value of $5.22 million.
Adding these and Daniel Ek’s December transactions to our running tally tells us that Spotify management, including company board members, cumulatively cashed out some USD $1.25 billion in 2024.
Why was there such a flurry of insider stock sale activity at Spotify last year? You already know the answer: SPOT’s barnstorming share price growth in 2024.
At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange at the tail-end of 2023, Spotify’s market cap was worth approximately USD $36.6 billion.
At the close of trading on the NYSE in late December 2024, that market cap had soared to a whopping USD $94.0 billion.
Spotify’s market cap even momentarily topped $100 billion in early December, as the firm’s individual share price exceeded $500 for the first time ever.
At the time of publication (January 6), Spotify’s share price on the NYSE is $466.67, translating to a company market cap of $93.75 billion.
Spotify is set to announce its calendar Q4 2024 quarterly financial results on Tuesday, February 4.
When announcing its Q3 2024 results in November, Spotify forecast that it would post quarterly revenues of EUR €4.1 billion in Q4, alongside a quarterly operating profit of EUR €481 million.
If Spotify meets that guidance, it will have generated annual revenues of approximately €15.5 billion and an annual operating profit of €1.37 billion.Music Business Worldwide