Spotify Plans Layoffs This Week To Cut Costs: Bloomberg

(RTTNews) - Audio streaming company Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) is planning layoffs as soon as this week to lower costs, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the plans.

The number of positions to be eliminated was not known. In October last year, the company had laid off 38 staff from its Gimlet Media and Parcast podcast studios.

In its third quarter, the company had slipped to a significant loss from prior year's net income, despite revenue of $3.04 billion, higher than last year.

As per its third-quarter earnings report, Spotify has about 9,800 employees. The audio streaming subscription service has more than 456 million users, including 195 million Spotify Premium subscribers, across 184 markets.

The company reportedly made a huge commitment to podcasting beginning in 2019, and spent over $1 billion on acquiring podcast networks, among others.

In June last year, Spotify said it was aiming to reach a billion users over the next eight years, by 2030, and $100 billion revenue annually in the next 10 years. In its first investor day since going public in 2018, in New York, the company said it was expecting high-margin returns from its expansion into podcasts and audiobooks.

Spotify shares were gaining around 2.1 percent in Germany to trade at 91.43 euros, and in pre-market activity on the NYSE to trade at $99.95.