Telia sells Spotify stake with 2.4x return on purchase price

News Wireless Global 30 MRT 2018
Telia sells Spotify stake with 2.4x return on purchase price

Telia Company said that it has gradually divested its entire holding in Spotify to institutional investors for USD 272 million or approximately SEK 2.3 billion, ahead of the streaming music company's listing on the stock market. This is equivalent to a return on investment of approximately 2.4 times. Telia invested USD 115 million in Spotify for a 1.4 percent stake in June 2015, after having begun to include Spotify Premium in its services in October 2009.

Telia said working with Spotify has given it valuable insights into several important areas including the launch of Telia CoPlay, which is made available under a home broadband service called Telia Zone.

Categories:

Mobile,  Internet

Companies:

Spotify

Regions:

Global

Tags:

Digital Music, M&A buyouts & divestments

Related Articles

GLOBAL 3 MEI 2018

Spotify grows to 170 mln users in Q1, revenues up 26%

Spotify ended the first quarter with a total of 170 million monthly active users, up 30 percent from a year earlier. Ad-supported users increased 21 percent to 99 million, driven by recent expansion in Asia, and paid subscribers rose 45 percent to 75 million, helped by extended trial periods in certain markets to drive conversion. 

SCANDINAVIA 20 APR 2018

Telia posts Q1 loss on divestments, starts share buyback as cash flow improves

Telia reported a net loss of SEK 600 million for the first quarter, versus a profit of SEK 7.05 billion a year ago, due to losses on divestments in central Asia. Revenues were still up 3.2 percent to SEK 19.85 billion, and adjusted EBITDA rose 7.4 percent to SEK 6.50 billion. Telia also announced plans to buy back SEK 5 billion in shares over the next three years. 

GLOBAL 13 APR 2018

Spotify acquires Loudr

Streaming-music specialist Spotify welcomed Loudr in the Spotify family. The newly acquired company was founded in 2013 to build products and services that make it easy for content creators, aggregators and digital music services to identify, track and pay royalties to music publishers. The Loudr team of publishing specialists and technologists will join Spotify's New York offices. Loudr will continue to provide services to its publishing and aggregator partners while contributing to Spotify's continued eff

SWEDEN 4 APR 2018

Zweden tonen interesse in aandeel Spotify

Het Zweedse consultancybedrijf Mediavision meldt dat 14 procent van de Zweden zou willen investeren in streaming muziekdienst Spotify, dat onlangs naar de beurs toog. Volgens de onderzoekers ligt de interesse hoog omdat Zweedse consumenten een bovengemiddeld hoge interesse hebben in digitale media. 

SWEDEN 4 APR 2018

Swedish interest in Spotify shares reflects uptake of subscriptions

Swedish consultancy Mediavision said 14 percent of Swedes are interested in investing in the newly listed Spotify share, according to Swedish online stockbroker Nordnet. It attributed this high level of interest to by country's general interest in digital media, as 26 percent of all Swedish homes subscribed to at least one music streaming service in the fourth quarter of 2017. This compared to 11 percent in the US, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, Mediavision added.

GLOBAL 4 APR 2018

Spotify shares close higher in first day of trading, Sony reduces stake

Spotify's shares gained nearly 13 percent from the reference price in its first day of trading in New York. The closing price of USD 149.01 values the music streaming company at around USD 26 billion. 

GLOBAL 29 MRT 2018

Spotify guidance disappoints, as YouTube prepares to step up the competition in music market

Spotify has issued guidance for its Q1 and 2018 results, ahead of its stock market listing on 03 April. What's the outlook for the company, based on its financials and the growing competition? The gross margin is improving thanks to better licensing deals, but its scale is still insufficient to cover all the personnel costs. This is disappointing, coming just before the stock listing. Spotify will need to rely on organic growth, geographic expansion and platform innovation, as Apple and YouTube step up the

GLOBAL 26 MRT 2018

Spotify forecasts at least 30% growth in subscribers in 2018

Spotify has released a financial outlook for Q1 and 2018, ahead of its listing on the stock market in early April. The company expects to grow both monthly active users and premium subscribers by around 30 percent in 2018. 

GLOBAL 1 MRT 2018

Spotify files for IPO in New York

With a private listing, there is no price given before, as shares simply start trading on day one. The company did give trading ranges for some private transactions that took place in recent months, saying some shares sold for USD 37.50, 90.0, 125.0 and as much as USD 132.50; the latter would give the company a market capitalisation of around USD 23 billion. Spotify added that these prices may have little or no relation to the share's final price when it starts trading. 

SWEDEN 25 JAN 2018

PTS warns 3 Sweden over privacy implications of zero rating, exonerates Telia

Swedish postal and telecoms regulator PTS said that 3 Sweden (Tre) has until 01 July 2018 to obtain express permission from its subscribers for providing certain music services without deducting the data used from their allowances. Processing the content of user traffic without their permission breaches privacy rules, it said.

NORWAY 19 DEC 2017

Nkom says Telia Norway can keep providing zero-rated Music Freedom for now

The Norwegian Communications Authority (Nkom) said it sees no reason to take action against Telia Norway's zero-rated Music Freedom service, following an analysis by Nkom in terms of EU net neutrality rules. Nkom said it has critical comments to make on several factors, but has concluded that there are no grounds to intervene at this point in time. The watchdog added that it will closely follow the development of zero-rating in the Norwegian market.

ESTONIA 12 OKT 2017

Telia Estonia offers zero-rated Spotify for Mobile Life package customers

Telia Estonia is offering 'Mobile Life' package customers the chance to use the music service Spotify without using internet traffic from their packages. The offer is available by default for customers subscribing to 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB bundles and the promotion will be valid until 31 May 2018. The operator introduced a zero-rated internet traffic option for users of its Minu.TV service in July.

NORWAY 8 JUN 2017

Telia Norway allows zero-rated music streaming in EU, EAA

Telia Norway said that from 12 June, it will include unlimited, zero-rated music streaming in several of its Smart subscriptions both in Norway and the EU and EAA. This will cover Spotify, Tidal and Beat. It said Music Freedom will be included in all its Telia Ung youth subscriptions as well as in the Telia Smart subscriptions Pluss, Super and Total.

NETHERLANDS 19 APR 2017

Spotify: market leader through innovation

Spotify is the world leader in streaming music, at least if we leave out YouTube and look only at paid services. Its success can be easily explained - not just 'hygiene' factors but other strategic choices, most important of which is continuous innovation.

SWEDEN 21 JUN 2016

Telia plans Telia Zone home broadband ecosystem

Telia Company said that it plans to launch Telia Zone, which it called a digital ecosystem and platform for broadband connections. It will provide customers with access to new services using a router, with no extra installation requirements. The first new service on the Telia Zone platform is Telia CoPlay, which it said is designed for use with Spotify.

Just In

19 DEC 16:42

SLT-Mobitel launches 5G network in Sri Lanka

19 DEC 16:19

Dialog Axiata launches 5G network, connects 1.5 million subscribers

19 DEC 15:56

UK govt to ban AI-enabled nudification apps to protect women, girls

19 DEC 15:42

3 UK launches last-minute Christmas sale

Commentary

13:56

Video market set for slower growth ahead

11:38

Netflix buys Warner Bros to deepen content catalogue

11:11

KPN's mixed performance in Q3 raises questions for strategy day

15:26

Stock markets breaking records but what happened to Odido's IPO plans?

Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins

Complete profile

Before downloading the whitepaper, we would like to ask you to complete your profile with company and position. After confirming you will receive the white paper.