Spotify stake bought by Nordic mobile giant
Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera has bought a 1.4 percent stake in music streamer Spotify, valuing the online music service at more than $8.2 billion.
"TeliaSonera is investing $115 million for a 1.4 percent stake in Spotify," TeliaSonera said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a source close to the matter as saying that the investment was part of a $526-million fundraising round, allowing the company to top $1.0 billion collected since its creation in 2008.
The New York-based daily identified the investors as American, British and Canadian funds, including one controlled by US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund.
Among the investors, TeliaSonera is the first to reveal publicly the size of its stake in Spotify, a pioneer of online music streaming started by Swedes.
"Both companies are also committing resources, staff and other assets to ignite the joint innovation agenda within areas such as media distribution, customer insights, data analytics and advertising," TeliaSonera added.
Since the Swedish state owns a small stake in TeliaSonera, this effectively means that the government now also has a slice of Sweden's most famous global firm to launch since Ikea and H&M.
The Swedish state now indirectly owns 0.5% of #Spotify http://t.co/NRkv8hcHKG pic.twitter.com/Ry2LrKFCfq
— James Savage (@SavLocal) June 10, 2015
READ ALSO: Spotify's new video streaming plan
The Luxembourg holding company Spotify Technologies registered turnover of €1.08 billion in 2014, but the company has not recorded a profit since its start.
Spotify has yet to comment on Apple's announcement earlier this week that it was launching a music streaming service expected to rival Spotify.
Spotify is currently available in 58 countries, while Apple Music will be launched at the end of June in over 100 countries for owners of Apple devices. By autumn, it will also be available for Android, the rival operating system by Google.
The Swedish company announced in May it would expand its services to include videos, podcasts and other content, some of which will be available exclusively on Spotify.
Spotify said on Wednesday it had 75 million users worldwide, of which 20 million are paying subscribers while the rest receive the advertising-financed free service.
Comments
See Also
"TeliaSonera is investing $115 million for a 1.4 percent stake in Spotify," TeliaSonera said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a source close to the matter as saying that the investment was part of a $526-million fundraising round, allowing the company to top $1.0 billion collected since its creation in 2008.
The New York-based daily identified the investors as American, British and Canadian funds, including one controlled by US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund.
Among the investors, TeliaSonera is the first to reveal publicly the size of its stake in Spotify, a pioneer of online music streaming started by Swedes.
"Both companies are also committing resources, staff and other assets to ignite the joint innovation agenda within areas such as media distribution, customer insights, data analytics and advertising," TeliaSonera added.
Since the Swedish state owns a small stake in TeliaSonera, this effectively means that the government now also has a slice of Sweden's most famous global firm to launch since Ikea and H&M.
The Swedish state now indirectly owns 0.5% of #Spotify http://t.co/NRkv8hcHKG pic.twitter.com/Ry2LrKFCfq
— James Savage (@SavLocal) June 10, 2015
READ ALSO: Spotify's new video streaming plan
The Luxembourg holding company Spotify Technologies registered turnover of €1.08 billion in 2014, but the company has not recorded a profit since its start.
Spotify has yet to comment on Apple's announcement earlier this week that it was launching a music streaming service expected to rival Spotify.
Spotify is currently available in 58 countries, while Apple Music will be launched at the end of June in over 100 countries for owners of Apple devices. By autumn, it will also be available for Android, the rival operating system by Google.
The Swedish company announced in May it would expand its services to include videos, podcasts and other content, some of which will be available exclusively on Spotify.
Spotify said on Wednesday it had 75 million users worldwide, of which 20 million are paying subscribers while the rest receive the advertising-financed free service.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.