Spotify Buying Bill Simmons’s The Ringer to Grow Sports Coverage

The Luxembourg-based company will acquire The Ringer's slate of 30 podcasts

Bill Simmons Criticized for Lack of Diversity at The Ringer
Bill Simmons speaks onstage during "Ahead of the Curve - The Future of Sports Journalism." (Mike Windle/Getty)
Getty Images for Vanity Fair

After being rumored last month, Spotify has reached an agreement to purchase Bill Simmons’s sports and pop culture website The Ringer.

As part of the “definitive agreement” with the site, the Luxembourg-based company will acquire The Ringer’s slate of 30 podcasts, including The Bill Simmons PodcastThe Rewatchables, and The Ryen Russillo Podcast.

With Simmons on board, Spotify will lean on him to discover and develop top-tier talent as well as create content across a variety of platforms.

“Spotify has the unique ability to truly supercharge both content and creator talent across genres,” Simmons said in a statement. “We spent the last few years building a world-class sports and pop culture multimedia digital company and believe Spotify can take us to another level. We couldn’t be more excited to unlock Spotify’s power of scale and discovery, introduce The Ringer to a new global audience and build the world’s flagship sports audio network. We’re joining one of the best media companies in the world. It’s an incredible day for us.”

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but previous reports indicated Simmons was looking for somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million for the sports and pop-culture outlet.

In related Spotify news, the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $231.5 million on Wednesday, losing $1.26 on a per-share basis.

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