By Michelle Jones. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Amazon has agreed to buy podcasting start-up Wondery. The deal will give the e-commerce giant a better footing in the competition against Spotify and Apple, which have both been pouring large amounts of capital into podcasting.
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Amazon to buy Wondery
Under the terms of the deal, Wondery will become part of Amazon Music, which added podcasts in September. The podcasting market has become extremely competitive with Apple, Spotify and others boosting their investments in the space. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, although The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in December that the talks valued Wondery at over $300 million. In September, Bloomberg reported that the company was looking into selling itself.
Fox Business reports that a number of other podcast start-ups have also been acquired over the last few years. Spotify snapped up Parcast, the Ringer and Gimlet Media to boost its capacity to produce and monetize podcasts. Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, has a partnership with Gimlet Media. In 2019, Entercom Communications bought Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Media, and in early 2020, The New York Times acquired Serial Productions, which makes the “Serial” podcast.
Wondery’s podcasts will still be available free on a number of platforms after Amazon acquires the company.
What is Wondery?
Sources told Fox Business that after the deal closes, Wondery CEO Herman Lopez will leave the company to focus on the Herman Lopez Family Foundation, which combats racism. Lopez faced charges in April of participation in an alleged scheme to bribe soccer officials in exchange for broadcasting rights. He was an executive at Fox Sports at the time, and he denied the allegations.
Wondery was founded in 2016 and has produced some hugely popular podcasts over the last few years. Among the company’s hits are true-crime series such as “Over My Dead Body,” “Dr. Death” and “Dirty John.” Wondery said it has over 10 million unique listeners every month.
With the acquisition of Wondery, Amazon expands its position in audio content. The e-commerce giant also owns Audible, which hosts both podcasts and audiobooks. Audible has been expanding its library of original content in recent years and built up its offerings of free podcasts such as “You’re Wrong About,” “Pod Save America” and “This American Life.”
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