Following Spotify's $100 Billion Market Cap, Daniel Ek Sells Off an Additional $28 Million in Shares.

Ek’s Significant Share Sales

Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek has sold another $28 million worth of SPOT shares, bringing his total stock sales to $248.3 million this year.

As Spotify shares reached all-time highs, Ek has been divesting his holdings in the Sweden-based streaming service in batches of 75,000 shares. His most recent sale on December 11 was smaller than previous transactions and resulted in a profit of $28.294 million.

This year, Spotify’s CEO has sold a total of 1,010,000 shares of the company he co-founded.

Nonetheless, he continues to be the largest shareholder. According to a 20-F document filed with the SEC, Ek held 30.86 million shares, representing 15.65% of the total, at the beginning of 2024. After the current round of sales, he still owns 29.85 million Spotify shares.

Record Highs and Market Trends

Ek’s latest share sale follows Spotify’s record high closing price of $502.38 per share on December 4, propelling the company’s market capitalization to nearly $100.9 billion.

However, Spotify’s share price has slightly decreased since then, closing at $476.91 per share on December 11, with a market capitalization approximately $95.8 billion.

According to Ek’s latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he sold the last tranche of shares at $471.58 per share.

Despite a recent dip—likely due to some profit-taking—the surge in Spotify’s share price has been remarkable. Back in November 2022, shares were trading at US$77, marking an impressive increase of 520% in about two years.

Most of this growth can be attributed to the solid earnings reports Spotify delivered throughout the year, with expectations for its first full year of profit in 2024.

Ek was not the only influential individual capitalizing on Spotify’s elevated share price. Co-founder and board member Martin Lorenzon emerged as the biggest seller this year, offloading nearly 1.49 million shares for $556.77 million.

2024 Key Shareholders’ Sales

Here’s our updated breakdown of 2024 stock sales by key Spotify individuals:

Martin Lorenzon co-founder and board member, sold 1,488,364 shares for $556.77 million.
Daniel Ek co-founder and CEO, sold 950,000 shares for $348.293 million.
Gustav Soderström Spotify’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, sold 247,465 shares for a total of $91.1 million.
Alex Norstrom chief commercial officer, sold 188,129 shares for $62.98 million.
Barry McCarthy former Spotify CFO and current board member, sold 94,250 shares for $39.96 million.
Katharina Berg Spotify’s Chief People Officer, sold 102,491 shares for $37.93 million.
Paul Vogel now former CFO, sold 77,931 shares for $19.36 million.
Eva Constant Mautner General Counsel of Spotify, sold 16,234 shares for $7.34 million.
Dusty Jenkins director of public relations, sold 13,709 shares for $6.22 million.
Ben Kung the company’s vice president of financial planning and analysis, who served as interim CFO this year, sold 11,887 shares for $4.81 million.