Summary: Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, has filed for an initial public offering today. The Sweden-based company has more than 71 million paying users as of December 2017. The company also enjoys an overall user base that includes ad-supported free listeners of 159 million, far outpacing the competition from Apple, Google, Tidal, and others. Spotify will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SPOT. According to CNBC, the price of Spotify shares traded on private markets indicate the company could be worth as much as $23 billion. Another slightly surprising winner from the IPO: Sony Music. The world’s second-biggest music label owns 5.7 percent of Spotify's shares. At that same $20 billion valuation, that stake would be worth $1.1 billion. Recode also has an interesting article about why Spotify had to go public. Today's Product: Google’s Slack competitor Hangouts Chat is launching for businesses as part of G Suite. Social Networks: https://twitter.com/q
