Paul Vogel, the chief financial officer of Spotify Technology, has announced his departure from the firm effective March 31, 2024. The business has started looking outside the firm for his replacement.
Over the past two years, Spotify has made changes to better align its spending with market expectations and finance the large growth potential it continues to uncover. I’ve discussed the necessity of properly balancing these two goals with Paul a lot. We’ve determined over time that Spotify is going through a transition and requires a CFO with a distinct set of skills. We’ve decided to split ways as a result, but I’m grateful for Paul’s steady hand in helping us grow our company despite a pandemic and unheard-of levels of economic uncertainty,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors.
Ben Kung, vice president of financial planning and analysis, will assume more duties in the interim to help with the organisation’s reorganisation of its financial leadership group.
We are in a strong position as we begin the process of finding a new leader. I am incredibly proud of the progress our business has made. Our latest initiatives will help us expedite our efforts to meet the objectives we set forth at our Investor Day, and we are on track to execute on them. I’ll be sharing more information shortly, but we’re excited to choose a capable financial leader as our next CFO,” Ek continued.
After Spotify revealed it was cutting off nearly a fifth of its personnel to save expenses, the value of the largest music streaming business in the world increased, and one of its top executives profited more than $9 million (£7.2 million) in shares.
On Tuesday, a day after investors sent Spotify’s share price skyrocketing in reaction to rumours that the cuts would help the company sustain profitability amid slowing economic growth, Paul Vogel, the company’s chief financial officer, sought to sell the $9.4 million worth of stock.
Not just Vogel profited from the jump, though. The day of the announcement saw an 8% increase in Spotify’s share price, which has continued to rise. According to documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, two additional top officials have profited from shares worth over $1.6 million.
The share price surge has been sustained by investors; on Wednesday, it reached a 52-week high of $202.88 during trade, valuing the Stockholm-based company at $37.9 billion.
It’s perfectly legal to sell stock just after a wave of layoffs, but it may not look good to try to profit from a spike in share prices while many employees are facing layoffs around Christmas.
