The deal is said to be worth over $300 million
Amazon made an announcement saying they have signed a deal for the acquisition of Wondery, a four-year-old podcast producing company.
While other details were not disclosed, it was mentioned that the Wondery team will be joining the Amazon Music group. The deal was first mentioned in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, where they reported that Jeff Bezos’ corporate giant had been in talks with Wondery for a deal worth over $300 million.
Amazon’s strategy
In their announcement, Amazon stated that once Wondery joined Amazon Music, Wondery will be able to provide even more high-quality, innovative content and can continue their mission of bringing a world of entertainment and knowledge to their audiences, no matter where they listen from.
The deal hasn’t closed yet, as the usual closing conditions are still pending. Amazon promised that even when the deal has been closed, nothing will change for the listeners, as they’ll be able to access all the Wondery podcasts through its numerous providers.
Earlier in June, Wondery founder and CEO Hernan Lopez told Variety that they had around 20 million monthly unique listeners. Once the deal closes, Lopez will be resigning from his CEO post and will be focusing on his recently announced Hernan Lopez Family Foundation and the new day-to-day operations for Wondery will be done by Wondery COO Jen Sargent, as per Amazon.
This acquisition is part of Amazon’s strategy to monetize the podcast gold rush and keep up with Spotify, who is currently investing more in podcasting. Amazon Music had launched several million free podcasts in September and also announced that numerous original podcasts will be introduced. Some of the headliners would be DJ Khaled, Becky G, Will Smith and Dan Patrick.
(Cover: Amazon)