Appointment fuels rumors of impending IPO at music-streaming giant
The world’s largest music-streaming service ‒ reportedly with 30 mn paying subscribers ‒ has hired Paul Vogel as head of investor relations, despite still being a private firm.
Vogel, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, is a Wall Street veteran who started his financial career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 1995 and comes to Spotify following a two-and-half-year stint at Barclays, where he was head of internet and media research. He also has some CFO experience, having served at social shopping marketplace OpenSky in 2013.
Vogel will report to CFO Barry McCarthy, whose appointment last year kicked off rumors the Swedish company was moving toward a listing. McCarthy was CFO at Netflix from 1999 to 2010, helping to take the firm public in 2002. He also served on the board of Spotify for almost 18 months between 2014 and 2015.
Spotify, which was valued at around $8 bn in an equity funding round in 2015, raised $1 bn in debt earlier this year.