We’re gonna go ahead and guess that Daniel Ek had a Holiday to remember.
Spotify‘s Swedish co-founder and CEO cashed out USD $27.72 million in company shares on December 23 – a handsome boost to anyone’s late-festive-gift budget.
Indeed, across the course of December, according to SEC filings reviewed by MBW, Ek cashed out some $93 million in SPOT share sales.
Those sales took place across three transactions: approximately $37 million was banked on December 4, followed by $28.3 million on December 11, and that $27.7 million cash-out on December 23.
Regular MBW readers will know we closely monitored Spotify share sales by Ek and his management team in 2024 – a year that saw SPOT’s stock price rise to record levels on the NYSE.
In late November, we calculated that Ek and his fellow Spotify co-founder, Martin Lorentzon, had jointly cashed out around $840 million in 2024 to date.
With Ek’s December sales now taken into account, that figure – for the full year of 2024 – rises close to a billion dollars, at $932.8 million.
In total, Ek cashed out shares carrying an aggregate market value of $376 million in 2024.
Lorentzon’s share sales, often conducted via his Rosello company, amounted to $556.8 million across 2024. (Unlike Ek, Lorentzon didn’t cash out any shares in December.)
Another executive to have enjoyed a lucrative 2024 thanks to Spotify shares is Barry McCarthy.
McCarthy, Spotify’s former CFO (and continuing board member), cashed out shares with an aggregate market value of just over USD $50 million last year, according to SEC filings.
McCarthy joined Ek in selling some shares in December, dumping 21,000 ordinary units of Spotify stock for $10.17 million.
Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer, Dustee Jenkins, also cashed out some stock in December, selling 10,399 shares at an aggregate market value of $5.22 million.
Adding these and Daniel Ek’s December transactions to our running tally tells us that Spotify management, including company board members, cumulatively cashed out some USD $1.25 billion in 2024.
Why was there such a flurry of insider stock sale activity at Spotify last year? You already know the answer: SPOT’s barnstorming share price growth in 2024.
At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange at the tail-end of 2023, Spotify’s market cap was worth approximately USD $36.6 billion.
At the close of trading on the NYSE in late December 2024, that market cap had soared to a whopping USD $94.0 billion.
Spotify’s market cap even momentarily topped $100 billion in early December, as the firm’s individual share price exceeded $500 for the first time ever.
At the time of publication (January 6), Spotify’s share price on the NYSE is $466.67, translating to a company market cap of $93.75 billion.