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Spotify is set to make a major acquisition to expand its podcast business. On Wednesday, February 5, it was announced that Spotify will be acquiring Bill Simmons’ “The Ringer” in a monumental move.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said, “I think we bought the next ESPN” when announcing the deal.
The deal will be a four-year deal, though few details were revealed at the time of the announcement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“With this acquisition, Spotify continues to deliver against its goal to become the world’s leading audio platform,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to putting the full power of Spotify behind The Ringer as they drive our global sports strategy.”
The website will continue to operate as usual with all 90 employees expected to keep their jobs.
“As we set out to expand our sports and entertainment offerings, we wanted a best-in-class editorial team,” Spotify content chief Dawn Ostroff said in a statement. “Bill Simmons is one of the brightest minds in the game and he has successfully innovated as a writer and content creator across mediums and platforms. The Ringer’s proven track record of creating distinctive cultural content as well as discovering and developing top-tier talent will make them a formidable asset for Spotify.”
Bill Simmons added:
“Spotify has the unique ability to truly supercharge both content and creator talent across genres. We spent the last few years building a world-class sports and pop culture multimedia digital company and believe Spotify can take us to another level. We couldn’t be more excited to unlock Spotify’s power of scale and discovery, introduce The Ringer to a new global audience and build the world’s flagship sports audio network.”
We will have to see what projects will be in the works for The Ringer under its new ownership, but for now Simmons can hang his hat on another big win.
