February 14, 2020

Spotify to Buy Bill Simmons’ The Ringer for an Estimated $196M

A day after announcing its fourth quarter 2019 results, streaming audio platform Spotify announced its intent to acquire Bill Simmon’s The Ringer. This acquisition will help Spotify expand its content catalog with sports and pop culture podcasts and The Ringer website, as well as reach new audiences. Bill Simmons, a former ESPN personality, started The Ringer in 2016. Spotify did not disclose terms of the deal, but Variety reports that the company may be paying as much as $196 million cash for The Ringer. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2020.

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illustration of the number five, representing the five subscription business topics for this column, Five-on-Friday

Five on Friday: Adblocking, Advertising and Influencing

Happy Valentine’s Day! In this week’s edition of Five on Friday, we share highlights from Blockthrough/PageFair’s 2020 adblocking report to see how adblocking is moving to mobile, YouTube’s advertising revenue hits a staggering $15 billion in 2019, Content Marketing Institute schools us on what we need to know about vanity metrics, Canada warns brands and influencers to follow the rules, and Flipboard launches a subscription video service.

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