TeliaSonera and Spotify to expand innovation partnership
Following more than five years of successful partnership, TeliaSonera and Spotify have decided to further boost co-operation. TeliaSonera will join forces with Spotify to take innovation to the next level and will additionally make an equity investment of USD 115 million.
Under the new strategic partnership, TeliaSonera is investing USD 115 million for a 1.4 percent stake in Spotify. Both companies are also committing resources, staff and other assets to ignite the joint innovation agenda within areas such as media distribution, customer insights, data analytics and advertising. A joint TeliaSonera-Spotify team will be set up to run the projects.
“We have a long and great relationship with TeliaSonera and I'm pleased we're able to take this to the next level together with this strategic partnership”, said Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder, Spotify.
“We’ve set-out to create a New Generation Telco where innovation is key to our success. Spotify is a great company, loved by customers and with a world class take on innovation I’m excited to join Spotify’s journey as investor and key partner”, says Johan Dennelind, President and CEO, TeliaSonera.
Martin Lorentzon, Spotify Chairman of the Board, has been a member of TeliaSonera’s Board of Directors since 2013. Martin Lorentzon has not participated in the board’s discussions or in the decision leading up to the partnership. TeliaSonera’s board and management have been in dialogue and discussed the transaction directly with Spotify’s executive management.
TeliaSonera AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Markets Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instrument Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 8 a.m. CET on June 10, 2015.
For more information, please contact the TeliaSonera press office 46 771 77 58 30, press@teliasonera.com, visit our Newsroom or follow us on Twitter @TeliaSoneraAB.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in the press release relating to future status or circumstances, including future performance and other trend projections are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to many factors, many of which are outside the control of TeliaSonera.
TeliaSonera provides network access and telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey, and in Spain. TeliaSonera helps people and companies communicate in an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way. Our ambition is to be number one or two in all our markets, providing the best customer experience, high quality networks and cost efficient operations. TeliaSonera is also the leading European wholesale provider who owns and operates one of the world's most extensive fiber backbones. In 2014, net sales amounted to SEK 101.1 billion, EBITDA to SEK 35.2 billion and earnings per share to SEK 3.35. The TeliaSonera share is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq Helsinki. Read more at www.teliasonera.com.
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