Spotify 借贷 10 亿美元，利率随期限递增，而非进行降价融资，以对抗 Apple Music

做的是什么生意

Spotify runs an on-demand music streaming service with free and paid tiers; in early 2016 it was a private company valued at $8.5B, racing Apple Music for subscribers worldwide.

启动资金：$1B in convertible debt from TPG, Dragoneer and clients of Goldman Sachs, on top of roughly €570M in cash a source said Spotify still held; its last valuation, $8.5B, was set in June 2015.

起因

By March 2016 Spotify was in a race it believed it could not afford to lose: on-demand streaming was becoming how people consume music, and whoever signed up subscribers fastest would keep their data and network effects for a long time. Its rival Apple, which the article calls the most well-funded company in history, was spending on consumer education, artist exclusives and Apple Music, and Spotify judged it needed comparable fuel.

经过

On 2016-03-29 Spotify confirmed it had raised $1B in convertible debt from TPG, Dragoneer and clients of Goldman Sachs. The terms were aggressive: lenders convert at a 20% discount to the eventual IPO price, the discount grows 2.5% every six months after a year without an IPO, interest starts at 5% and steps up 1% every six months toward a 10% cap, and TPG and Dragoneer can sell 90 days after listing, before employees' 180-day lockup ends. A source familiar with Spotify's finances said the company still held about €570M in the bank, so the raise was for offense: growth, marketing and possible acquisitions such as SoundCloud or Pandora, not survival.

可借鉴之处

在定义品类的竞争中，如果输掉代价更高，创始人会接受苛刻条款：Spotify 选择利率随 IPO 延迟递增的债务，因为降价融资显示弱势，而延迟会增加折扣。