But Tuesday’s call, arriving against the backdrop of the company’s, found Ek and chief financial officer Paul Vogel more defensive than usual as they worked to bolster investor confidence in the face of the dollar-per-month U.S. price increases — which the company announced on Monday, the day before the earnings call, and only after each of its competitors had already raised their prices.
In response to a question about how they plan to keep operating expenses efficient while still having the right level of investment, Ek spoke of the company’s growth during the pandemic before conceding, “We probably got a little bit ahead of ourselves in that investment, so we’ve rightsized our staff.
The hint about layoffs came next when Vogel responded, “Q2 was last quarter where we had headcount higher year over year, and we expect our year over year headcount to be down in Q3 — we’ll see where that goes going forward,” he said. “We’re continuing to be more efficient and feel really good about where we are, so you will see some of that efficiency have even more of an impact in the back half of the year with respect to the op-ex.
Ek noted at least twice that the company has raised prices more than 50 times in the past , but also said that the company had waited to raise them while “trying to build more value,” concluding that “a new tool in our toolbox is the ability to raise prices.”