[jiveturkey]

> if they followed a traditional IPO the wouldn't have gone public at the same price but had a bank to back stop their share price at that level.

TFA:

> At Spotify, we chose more of a free market approach.

and

> we didn’t need to raise capital to fund our growth.

These are the 2 key points that people are going to miss. The reason to use a bank to underwrite your IPO (and make the market) is to backstop the price. The company isn't "leaving money on the table" when they price "too low" and miss the first day pop. They are buying insurance against internal pricing error.

I would like to see an independent analysis, not a supporting article from the CFO of the company that could afford the risk.

Please excuse me if my own armchair look at it is hopelessly naive.