The podcast hosting company Spotify agreed to buy for US$235 million in 2020 was Megaphone.
Megaphone was a podcast technology company focused on hosting, publishing, distribution, and advertising. It was owned by Graham Holdings and had become an important platform for publishers seeking to manage podcast episodes while also selling targeted advertising against their audiences.
Spotify announced the acquisition on November 10, 2020, and said the deal would strengthen its podcast advertising business. The company was especially interested in Megaphone’s technology for helping publishers monetize shows and in expanding Spotify’s supply of podcast advertising inventory beyond Spotify-owned programs.
Spotify completed the acquisition on December 8, 2020. Megaphone was not the same kind of service as a consumer listening app such as Spotify, nor was it a rival hosting company such as Libsyn or Podbean. Its role was primarily business-facing: providing infrastructure and monetization tools to podcast publishers.
The purchase was part of Spotify’s broader 2019–2020 expansion into podcast production, distribution, exclusive programming, and advertising technology.