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

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers now run the stock market.

Joseph Corr

2019-11-17 14:43:00 Sunday ET

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers now run the stock market.

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers run the stock market. Morningstar suggests that the total dollar amount of passive equity assets re

+See More

Bidenomics better balances fiscal deficits and government expenditures with new corporate and capital income tax hikes.

Apple Boston

2021-08-01 07:26:00 Sunday ET

Bidenomics better balances fiscal deficits and government expenditures with new corporate and capital income tax hikes.

The Biden administration launches economic reforms in fiscal and monetary stimulus, global trade, finance, and technology. President Joe Biden proposes s

+See More

The Trump administration still expects to reach a Sino-U.S. trade agreement with better intellectual property protection and enforcement.

Apple Boston

2019-05-11 10:28:00 Saturday ET

The Trump administration still expects to reach a Sino-U.S. trade agreement with better intellectual property protection and enforcement.

The Trump administration still expects to reach a Sino-U.S. trade agreement with a better mechanism for intellectual property protection and enforcement. Pr

+See More

Agile lean enterprises remain flexible and capable of reinvention in light of new megatrends such as digitization and servitization.

Amy Hamilton

2020-10-20 09:36:00 Tuesday ET

Agile lean enterprises remain flexible and capable of reinvention in light of new megatrends such as digitization and servitization.

Agile lean enterprises remain flexible and capable of reinvention in light of new megatrends such as digitization and servitization. Shane Cragun and Kat

+See More

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

Amy Hamilton

2019-06-30 12:37:00 Sunday 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 June 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of June 2019: (1) Federal Reserve h

+See More

President Trump imposes punitive tariffs on $60 billion Chinese imports in a brand-new trade war.

Laura Hermes

2018-03-25 08:39:00 Sunday ET

President Trump imposes punitive tariffs on $60 billion Chinese imports in a brand-new trade war.

President Trump imposes punitive tariffs on $60 billion Chinese imports in a brand-new trade war as China hits back with retaliatory tariffs on $3 billion U

+See More