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

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius proposes designing a new Financial Conditions Index (FCI).

Chanel Holden

2018-07-19 18:38:00 Thursday ET

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius proposes designing a new Financial Conditions Index (FCI).

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius proposes designing a new Financial Conditions Index (FCI) to be a weighted-average of interest rates, exchange rat

+See More

President Donald Trump unveils the dramatic *tax overhaul proposal*.

Daisy Harvey

2017-04-13 10:42:00 Thursday ET

President Donald Trump unveils the dramatic *tax overhaul proposal*.

President Donald Trump unveils the dramatic *tax overhaul proposal*. Through this tax plan, Trump replaces the current 7 income tax brackets with 3 leane

+See More

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

Daphne Basel

2019-07-31 11:34:00 Wednesday ET

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

AYA Analytica finbuzz podcast channel on YouTube July 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of July 2019: (1) All 18 systemical

+See More

A brief biography of Dr Andy Yeh

Andy Yeh Alpha

2023-06-19 10:31:00 Monday ET

A brief biography of Dr Andy Yeh

A brief biography of Dr Andy Yeh (PhD, MFE, MMS, BMS, FRM, and USPTO patent accreditation) Dr Andy Yeh is responsible for ensuring maximum sustainable me

+See More

Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker releases his memoir, talks about American public governance, and worries about plutocracy in America.

Apple Boston

2018-10-23 12:36:00 Tuesday ET

Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker releases his memoir, talks about American public governance, and worries about plutocracy in America.

Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker releases his memoir, talks about American public governance, and worries about plutocracy in America. Volcker suggests that pu

+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