Acquired

Season 2, Episode 6: Spotify’s Direct Listing


Listen Later

Acquired wraps up a big few weeks of coverage with not an IPO or an M&A or a fundraising round, but what’s still the largest tech exit in recent memory: Spotify’s $30B direct public listing. We dive into what it all means and how we got here: from Napster to iTunes to Facebook (and even some Justin Timberlake thrown in for good measure). Acquired FM is on the scene and spinning all the hits from this new wave music industry titan! 

Note: We incorrectly described Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s ownership stake in Spotify as 25%+; that is actually his voting control. His economic ownership is 9.3%, and cofounder Martin Lorentzon’s is 12.4%. We apologize for the error!

Sponsors:

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn
Vanta: http://vanta.com/acquired
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25


More Acquired!

  • Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
  • Join the Slack
  • Subscribe to ACQ2
  • Merch Store!

© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC


Links:

  •  Internet History Podcast on the Napster Story with Jordan Ritter
  •  Sean Parker’s email to Daniel Ek

Carve Outs:

  • Ben: Black Panther (and  soundtrack on Spotify!)
  • David: “Silicon Ballet” panel at San Francisco Ballet on Saturday, April 28
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

AcquiredBy Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

3,976 ratings


More shows like Acquired

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,290 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

535 Listeners

Masters in Business by Bloomberg

Masters in Business

2,172 Listeners

Odd Lots by Bloomberg

Odd Lots

1,895 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,100 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

2,127 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

797 Listeners

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway by Vox Media Podcast Network

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

5,522 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

9,902 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

506 Listeners

The Memo by Howard Marks by Oaktree Capital Management

The Memo by Howard Marks

447 Listeners

Business Breakdowns by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Business Breakdowns

353 Listeners

The Ben & Marc Show by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz

The Ben & Marc Show

118 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

521 Listeners

Stepchange by Ben Shwab Eidelson and Anay Shah

Stepchange

24 Listeners