Why SiriusXM Will Pay $325 Million to Acquire Stitcher
Satellite radio operator SiriusXM Holdings will pay $325 million to acquire podcast network Stitcher Radio from E.W. Scripps Co. in a deal that bolsters SiriusXM’s slate of podcasting talent and gives it access to valuable advertising technology. Stitcher operates Midroll Media, a podcast advertising network that connects advertisers to podcasts based on the advertiser’s target audience. Midroll is a valuable addition to SiriusXM’s portfolio because it tracks specific listener information in order to cater ads to them, such as what devices people listen on, how long a person listened to an ad, when they turned it off, or which ads listeners skip. SiriusXM wouldn’t comment on the company’s decision to acquire Stitcher but a spokesman noted that Sirius already owns two software companies — radio ad tracking service AdsWizz and Simplecast, a podcast analytics and publishing platform. If SiriusXM wants to further increase its podcast advertising intelligence, acquiring Stitcher is an easy leg up. “This Stitcher deal is a huge expansion of their efforts” in advertising intelligence, Dave Zohrob, chief executive of podcast tracking site Chartable, told TheWrap. “We work with AdsWizz when we do ad attribution, and they represent a big slice of dynamically inserted ads,” Zohrob said. “Simplecast...
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