Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

How Spotify Grew Up Before Going Public

Unlike Snap, this upstart is done with giveaways for customers and investors alike.

April 7, 2017 at 4:14 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Here comes the sun -- through the back door.
Photographer: iStock/Getty Images Plus

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It's unconscionable in 2017 that the only publicly traded music streaming company is still Pandora Media Inc., an Internet radio provider which went public in 2011 and is trading below its initial public offering price. Hopefully, Spotify Ltd. will rectify the situation this year, even if that means it has to use a back door to an exchange listing. It's an interesting back door for others in the tech industry, too.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the London-based company is considering a direct listing instead of an IPO. This is a path usually reserved for small firms looking to save money on investment bankers and keep more of the company’s value for the existing shareholders.