Report: Amazon Eyes Buying Startup Wondery As Entry To 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 Wednesday (Dec. 2).

WSJ cited unnamed sources as saying the talks have valued Wondery at over $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 $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 U.S. 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.

Companies based on subscriptions have been big since the pandemic hit, Recurly executive Emma Clark said in a conversation with PYMNTS.

Clark said consumers are looking for fresh avenues of entertainment and education that could be considered safe in the current environment, allowing customers to consume things without having to spend too much time in the offline world. But Clark said the key is being able to keep growth up, and to retain and broaden a subscriber base.