Amazon To Buy Wondery Podcast Network

Thankfully, predicting mergers and acquisitions in the business world appears much easier than figuring out what the Las Vegas Raiders will do week to week.

Last week, the fortune tellers were proven correct when Amazon Music announced that it had signed an agreement to purchase the Wondery Podcast Network. . According to Amazon's press release, "Wondery is an innovative podcast publisher with a track record of creating and producing top-rated podcasts that entertain and educate listeners, including Dirty John, Dr. Death, Business Wars, and The Shrink Next Door.” 

When the deal closes, not much will change for listeners, Amazon contends, and they’ll continue to be able to access Wondery podcasts through a variety of providers.

 

Amazon Music launched podcasts in September 2020, and the inclusion of Wondery enables Amazon to expand the Amazon Music offering beyond music as listener habits evolve. 

While Amazon has not revealed the acquisition price, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg previously valued Wondery at close to $300 million.  

This Amazon / Wondery deal follows a growing list of acquisitions in the podcast industry. Just last month,Spotify purchased podcast advertising platform Megaphone for $235 million. Earlier in the year,SiriusXM purchased Simplecast, a podcast management platform, followed by podcast host Stitcher. While the value of the Simplecast deal has not been released, Stitcher was purchased for $325 million.  

iHeartMedia acquired podcast publisher and advertiser Voxnest, which also owns Spreaker, the sixth largest podcast host in the world, and The New York Times acquired Serial Productions, the podcast behind "Serial," for $25 million.

 According to Inside Podcasting, "Wondery has shown itself as a powerhouse for podcast publishing, especially launching new shows. Podtrac’s top 25 new podcasts of 2020 had eleven shows from Wondery, easily the largest publisher of new shows this year. Jen Sargent, who’ll take over management of the company, outlined her strategy last year."

Wondery was on track to bring in more than $40 millionm in revenue this year, but c 25 percent of this revenue was derved from licensing deals to TV, companies like Stitcher Premium and Amazon’s Audible, as well as its own Wondery Plus service and licensing with overseas partners.

Wonder has particularly spent considerable time adapting and translating its shows into other languages, especially with its highly successful podcasts like Dr. Death and Business Wars.  Wondery has been particularly active in Latin America - an area where Amazon, too has firmly established its presence.

Wondery has also been able to expand its media reach beyond podcasting. For instance, Dirty John became a TV show for Bravo, Dr Death is under production for Universal, and The Shrink Next Door is to be made for Apple TV, among many others that have been optioned for television.

Finally,  Wondery’s current CEO, Hernan Lopez will step down as the deal is done to presumably concentrate on his upcoming court case.

Stay tuned to see how Wondery merges into the Amazon universe.