But that’s not the only reason they sold. And also, make money back for our investors and provide a healthy return.”īlumberg, the original host of StartUp who used the warts-and-all podcast to chronicle Gimlet’s early days, was characteristically candid in his reasoning: Yes, he and Lieber are very aware the acquisition will make them personally wealthy. “And for us, that felt like a better path where we could realize our ambitions and our goals. “We looked at the path of joining a large platform with global distribution and, you know, multiple billion dollars of revenue and data and discovery and an amazing technology platform that was invested in audio,” Lieber said. But ultimately, they decided that was a risk, and Spotify had more to offer. Lieber said they did consider that, given the success of its hit shows like StartUp and Reply All, Gimlet might be able to “navigate the stormy seas of media” and remain independent. On the latest episode of Recode Media With Peter Kafka, Gimlet co-founders Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber spoke to Kafka just hours after the sale was officially announced. On Wednesday, Spotify said it would buy Gimlet - and the podcasting app Anchor, with hopes of buying more.

On Friday, Recode broke the news that Spotify was in talks to buy the popular New York-based podcast studio Gimlet Media for more than $200 million.

Spotify buy anchor