The message was surprising. Spotify's stock – one of the year's winners on Wall Street with a price increase of over 60 percent – falls by over 4 percent after the news.
The 42-year-old Daniel Ek has been Spotify's face outward since the start almost 20 years ago. But Ek is clear that he as executive chairman from the turn of the year will be more involved in the management of Spotify than what a chairman of the board usually is in listed companies in the USA.
"Friend, coach and cheerleader"
Ek describes it as that he will act more like an active European chairman of the board than an American one. Among other things, he will keep an office at the company to support the new managers in their work.
As a friend, coach and cheerleader, he says on a telephone conference with investors.
In a post on X, Ek describes what happens now as a "new phase in Spotify's journey", where his role is taken over by Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström. The two will share the role of CEO.
The reason we're doing this now is that Gustav and Alex are doing a fantastic job of leading the company after stepping into the roles as deputy CEOs at the beginning of 2023, says Ek.
He points, among other things, to various investments that the duo is behind, including video podcasts and audiobook investments.
Both Norström and Söderström will, as the company's top executives, be nominated to take a seat on Spotify's board, according to Ek – a proposal that must be approved by the shareholders.
According to Ek, his withdrawal from the CEO role is actually just a formal adaptation to how it actually already works at Spotify when it comes to leadership in the company.
Spotify stock down
Ek mentions that both of the incoming executives have worked over 15 years within Spotify in the role of technical and product manager, respectively, business manager. And he himself has already handed over large parts of the daily management to the duo.
The formal change takes place from January 1, which means that Ek will be involved in presenting Spotify's next quarterly report on November 4.
Joakim Goksör/TT
Tobias Österberg/TT
Fact: Started venture capital fund 2020
TT
Daniel Ek founded the streaming service Spotify together with Martin Lorentzon in 2006 and was involved in taking the company to the New York Stock Exchange in 2018, where Spotify, with this year's price increase, is valued at over 1,420 billion kronor.
Spotify's music service provides access to around 100 million songs and is used by almost 700 million people, of which 276 million are paying subscribers.
Five years ago, Ek launched the venture capital fund Prima Materia to make investments in start-up companies in the technology sector together with Shakil Khan, a former Spotify executive.
Ek has been particularly involved in two of the investments: the body scanning company Neko Health and the German defense technology company Helsing. The two companies have this year been valued at 1.8 and 12 billion euros, respectively. Ek is described as co-founder of Neko Health and is chairman of the board in Helsing.
Source: Bloomberg
