Spotify considers directly selling its shares to the retail public with no underwriter involvement.

Rose Prince

2018-01-08 10:37:00 Mon ET

Spotify considers directly selling its shares to the retail public with no underwriter involvement. The music-streaming company plans a direct list on NYSE in lieu of a hot IPO. This alternative procedure can be cheaper, faster, and less legally risky to the issuer. The issuer may then lose its first-day price run-up in a hot IPO, which seldom benefits anyone apart from the institutional investors who receive an initial allocation of shares. In contrast, most startups file for an IPO through investment banks. These underwriters round up institutional investors to buy the issuer's fresh shares in order to establish a fair market price. Through a promotional roadshow, the underwriters commit to covering these new shares in their due diligence and fair valuation. The underwriters receive a considerable bounty in the order of 3%-5% of the IPO price (e.g. $300 million fee-payment to Alibaba's underwriters).

As cash-rich companies such as Spotify, Uber, and Airbnb have little incentive to raise capital via IPOs, these cash cows prefer to directly list on stock exchanges. Spotify can thus bypass firm commitment on the part of IPO-fee-driven investment banks. Nevertheless, the direct list may expose Spotify to bear raid by short-sellers, little underwriter liability, and less blue-sky transparency. This direct list option may attract more unicorns into the U.S. public stock market.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Corporate diversification theory and evidence

James Campbell

2022-04-05 17:39:00 Tuesday ET

Corporate diversification theory and evidence

Corporate diversification theory and evidence A recent strand of corporate diversification literature spans at least three generations. The first generat

+See More

Fed Chair Janet Yellen says the current high stock market valuation does not mean overvaluation.

Jonah Whanau

2017-12-11 08:42:00 Monday ET

 Fed Chair Janet Yellen says the current high stock market valuation does not mean overvaluation.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen says the current high stock market valuation does not mean overvaluation. A stock market quick fire sale would pose minimal risk to t

+See More

President Trump refreshes American fiscal fears and sovereign debt concerns through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Jacob Miramar

2025-06-21 05:25:00 Saturday ET

President Trump refreshes American fiscal fears and sovereign debt concerns through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

President Trump refreshes American fiscal fears, worries, and concerns through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimat

+See More

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the competitive landscape worldwide.

Charlene Vos

2026-04-30 08:28:00 Thursday ET

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the competitive landscape worldwide.

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI)

+See More

These famous quotes of self-made billionaires are inspirational words of wisdom on investment management.

Joseph Corr

2017-06-27 05:40:00 Tuesday ET

These famous quotes of self-made billionaires are inspirational words of wisdom on investment management.

These famous quotes of self-made billionaires are inspirational words of wisdom on financial management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. For financial

+See More

Fed Chair Jerome Powell answers CBS News 60 Minutes questions about the recent U.S. economic outlook.

Dan Rochefort

2019-03-29 12:28:00 Friday ET

Fed Chair Jerome Powell answers CBS News 60 Minutes questions about the recent U.S. economic outlook.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell answers CBS News 60 Minutes questions about the recent U.S. economic outlook and interest rate cycle. Powell views the c

+See More