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.

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.