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Spotify to Reduce Staff by 17% in 2nd Layoff this Year

FILE PHOTO: Earphones are seen on top of a smart phone with a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Earphones are seen on top of a smart phone with a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
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Spotify to Reduce Staff by 17% in 2nd Layoff this Year

FILE PHOTO: Earphones are seen on top of a smart phone with a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Earphones are seen on top of a smart phone with a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica February 20, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

Spotify will reduce its total headcount by around 17% across the company, it said in an email on Monday, after laying off 6% of this staff in January citing higher costs.
In the latest third quarter, the company swung to a profit aided by price hikes in its streaming services and growth in subscribers in all regions, and forecast that its number of monthly listeners would reach 601 million in the holiday quarter.
CEO Daniel Ek told Reuters at that time the company was still focusing on efficiencies to get more out of each dollar.
On Monday, he said a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and its performance.
"We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025," CEO Daniel Ek said in a mail to employees.
"Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to rightsize our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives."

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Magic Can’t Save ‘Harry Potter’ Star Rupert Grint from a $2.3 Million Tax Bill

Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
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Magic Can’t Save ‘Harry Potter’ Star Rupert Grint from a $2.3 Million Tax Bill

Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)

Former “Harry Potter” film actor Rupert Grint faces a 1.8 million-pound ($2.3 million) bill after he lost a legal battle with the tax authorities.

Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the magical film franchise, was ordered to pay the money in 2019 after H.M. Revenue and Customs, the UK tax agency, investigated his tax return from seven years earlier.

The agency said Grint had wrongly classed 4.5 million pounds in residuals from the movies — money from DVD sales, TV syndication, streaming rights and other sources — as a capital asset rather than income, which is subject to a much higher tax rate.

Lawyers for Grint appealed, but after years of wrangling a tribunal judge ruled against the actor this week. Judge Harriet Morgan said the money “derived substantially the whole of its value from the activities of Mr. Grint” and “is taxable as income.”

Grint, 36, starred in all eight Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011 as the boy wizard’s best friend, and is calculated to have earned around 24 million pounds from the role.

He previously lost a separate court battle over a 1 million pound tax refund in 2019.