SiriusXM has announced that it will acquire Stitcher from E.W. Scripps for $325 million USD ($442,217,750 CAD). The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal earlier today. This acquisition will allow Sirius to compete with Apple and Spotify and more in the podcasting space.
Stitcher is a podcasting app with an ad-free subscription service and produces shows like Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, My Favorite Murder, SuperSoul Sunday and Freakonomics. Stitcher’s app has a range of podcasts including news, sports, talk and entertainment.
Scripps also combined with Stitcher with Midroll Media and together they sell ads for shows like The Dream and Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness; Sirius will get ownership to Midroll Media as well.
“The addition of Stitcher is an important next step as we continue to develop and strengthen our offering in the fast-growing podcasting market,” Jim Meyer, chief executive officer of SiriusXM, said in a news release.
Last year SiriusXM signed a multi-year deal with Disney to create podcasts for new series based on Wolverine, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Star-Lord.
SiriusXM will pay $265 million USD to Scripps and up to $60 million additional payments on Stitcher financial metrics in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, Scripps said in a news release that $325 million is more than double its investment in podcasting in the last five years.
The deal is expected to close in Q3 of 2020.
Source: CBC
