Amazon May Buy Startup Wondery To Start Podcasts

Amazon is in talks to purchase of podcast maker Wondery, a startup that could help the tech giant push more into the burgeoning podcast sector, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

WSJ cited unnamed sources as saying the talks have valued Wondery at over US$300 million — a big increase from the podcast company’s value at its last funding round in June 2019, which priced the firm at about US$100 million.

WSJ reported Wondery is one of the last independent companies in the popular podcast market, potentially making it the final major option for a big tech company to buy into the field.

Wondery is known for true-crime podcasts like “Doctor Death,” “Dirty John” and “Over My Dead Body,” and it was the sixth-most-popular US podcast publisher in September, according to numbers from market watcher Podtrac, per WSJ.

Wondery attracted more than 60 million downloads and streams of its various shows in September, surpassed only by luminary names like NPR, iHeartMedia, and The New York Times, according to WSJ.

Wondery, along the lines of many contemporaries, has seen a boost from the general trend in podcasting in recent years, generating revenue from advertising fees as well as licensing fees and the optioning of rights to big media companies like AT&T and The Walt Disney Company, WSJ reported.

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