WMG Sells 75% Of Spotify Stock
• In its earnings call on Monday morning, Warner Music Group announced it has sold about 75% of its Spotify equity for approximately $400 million. “Just so there won’t be any misinterpretation about the rationale for our decision to sell, let me be clear: We’re a music company, and not, by our nature, long-term holders of publicly traded equity,” said WMG CEO Stephen Cooper, adding, “This sale has nothing to do with our view of Spotify’s future. We’re hugely optimistic about the growth of subscription streaming, and we know it has only just begun to fulfill its potential for global scale. We fully expect Spotify to continue to play a major role in that growth.”
Warner’s percentage of ownership of Spotify was not disclosed, although it’s less than 5%, the minimum that would make the company obligated to disclose changes in its holdings under SEC rules.
Earlier this year Sony Music announced that it has sold 17.2% of its shares in Spotify, yielding a payday of $260 million or more, according to a notice Sony shared with investors. At the time of Spotify’s IPO, Sony Music Entertainment owned 5.7% of Spotify’s outstanding shares, or 10.16 million shares. With the sale, Sony Music retains 8.4 million Spotify shares — 4.7% of company’s total ordinary shares.
