Topline
Spotify shares dropped more than $4% as trading opened on Tuesday, after the audio-streaming platform announced billionaire founder Daniel Ek would step down as chief executive after nearly two decades leading the company.
The audio-streaming platform reported its first full-year profitability last year after expanding to podcasts and audiobooks.
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Key Facts
Shares of Spotify dropped 4% around $697 as trading opened Tuesday, following a similar decline in premarket.
Spotify said in a statement Ek will transition to executive chairman, while co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström—both of whom will still report to Ek—will serve as co-chief executives effective Jan. 1, 2026
In his new role, Ek will “more closely reflect a European Chairman setup,” Spotify said, indicating Ek will “determine capital allocation, map the long-term future of Spotify and continue to provide support and guidance to its senior team.”
“And to be clear, I’m not leaving,” Ek told Spotify employees in a memo, adding he would remain involved in the “big, defining decisions about our future.”
Ek told Forbes that Spotify had been working on a transition to Söderström and Norström for years, noting they were “more capable and more than ready to take it on,” and, “I feel now is the time, and I don’t want to hold them back.”
Forbes Valuation
Ek has a fortune estimated at $10.3 billion, ranking him the 293rd-richest person in the world as of Tuesday. He holds roughly 9% of Spotify’s shares and has benefited from the stock nearly doubling over the last year, as his net worth swelled from about $4.2 billion last year and $2.3 billion in 2023.
Big Number
$73.9 billion. That’s roughly how much has been added to Spotify’s market capitalization over the last 12 months, as the stock has surged nearly 98% with about $360 added to Spotify’s stock price. Spotify had a market capitalization of about $149.6 billion as of Monday’s share price, up from $75.7 billion a year earlier.
Key Background
Stockholm native Ek cofounded Spotify alongside Martin Lorentzon in 2006 and launched two years later as an apparent competitor to Apple’s iTunes. Spotify offered a monthly subscription for unlimited access to music, as opposed to Apple, which required payment for each song. The audio-streaming platform has since expanded to more than 696 million users and 276 million subscribers across more than 180 markets, according to the company. Audiobooks and podcasts have been added to the platform in recent years, as Ek said last year that users should “expect there to be many more versions of Spotify in the future.” Spotify concluded 2024 by reporting its first full year of profitability, following its second round of increasing subscription prices in the U.S., as monthly active users climbed 12% in the firm’s strongest-ever fourth quarter.