Spotify filed for its IPO today after completing almost ten years of launching its music streaming service. The company plans to trade its ordinary shares on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “SPOT”. The IPO pricing has been not yet determined. However, Spotify stated in the SEC filing that its shares have been trading in private transactions between $90.00 and $132.50 from January 1, 2018 through February 22, 2018.
As of December 31, 2017, Spotify’s monthly active users were 159 million and premium subscribers were 71 million, which the company believes to be nearly twice the size of its closest competitor, Apple Music.
Revenue of Apple Music’s rival surged 39% year-over-year to $5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2017, and net loss widened to $1.5 billion from $663 million in the prior year period.
With online travel agent Airbnb’s IPO has become uncertain in 2018 because of its CFO Laurence Tosi’s departure, Spotify IPO has become the first major IPO in the U.S. stock market.
