“Innovative And Daring” CFO of Spotify Announces Retirement

“Spotify announced Monday that its finance chief, Barry McCarthy, 66, would retire in January. McCarthy helped take the music-streaming giant public last year with an unconventional approach that skirted around the traditional IPO process and investment bank middlemen.

In a risky move, McCarthy circumvented the traditional initial public offering, its roadshow and underwriters’ fees, and instead executing a direct listing, a process where shareholders sell existing shares directly to the public without the company going through an intermediary. The tactic has the added benefit of not restricting insiders from cashing out. Spotify went public in April 2018,” writes Forbes. 

Cordell Eminent Scholar Chair Jay Ritter comments on Spotify’s direct listing approach. See what he had to say in this article from Forbes.