Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has sold $176 million worth of stock this year — and he's not the only exec to cash out amid ballooning value.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Daniel Ek, Spotify's cofounder and CEO, has sold $176.3 million worth of his stock in the streaming service this year, as its shares continue to surge.
On April 24, Ek sold roughly 400,000 shares worth $118,800,000, according to an SEC filing. In a separate transaction in February, he sold 250,000 shares worth $57,505,000, per filings.
The sales come as Spotify's stock has grown substantially in recent months — to the tune of roughly 60% year-to-date.
The company reported record profitability last quarter — though Ek acknowledged that Spotify underestimated the impact of laying off 1,500 people in December (as part of 2,500 in total cuts in 2023.)
Ek is one of many prominent business execs offloading shares amid explosive growth. As of February, Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, and Mark Zuckerberg had sold stock in their respective companies worth about $9 billion — as shares of Amazon, JPMorgan, and Meta ballooned.
And Ek — who famously hasn't taken a salary since 2017 — also isn't the only Spotify exec selling shares this year. Fortune notes that other members of Spotify's C-suite, plus former CFO Paul Vogel, have also sold tens of millions of dollars in stock this year.
Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
