Topic: How To Invest

Spinoffs & Takeovers Hotline – Friday, November 27, 2020

Article Excerpt

SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA, $277.62, symbol SPOT on New York, is a Swedish company that provides both a free and subscription-based music streaming service. Spotify is now one of the world’s largest music streaming services. The company first sold shares to the public in an IPO on April 3, 2018. Spotify announced on November 10, 2020, that it would acquire podcast advertising and publishing firm Megaphone. It reportedly paid $235 million. Formerly an audio-content producer known as Panoply, Megaphone has been operating under its new name since 2016. It now focuses on helping podcasters with production, advertising and audience metrics. Its “Megaphone Targeted Marketplace” inserts ads when a podcast is downloaded and lets advertisers target listeners by interest, purchase behaviour and demographics across podcast apps. Instead of buying advertising time on specific podcasts, brands can buy ad slots targeting 60,000 audience segments for the more than 5,500 shows that use the service. Earlier this year, Spotify introduced its own podcast ad technology. The company’s “Streaming…