LiveOne To Spin Off PodcastOne
• LiveOne announced its intention to spin off its wholly owned subsidiary, PodcastOne, as a separate public company to be listed on a national exchange and its plan to dividend a portion of PodcastOne’s common equity to LiveOne’s more than 15,000 stockholders as of a future record date, anticipated to be completed by year-end. In connection with the anticipated spin-off, PodcastOne closed a private placement financing of convertible notes and warrants totaling approximately $8.1 million prior to offering expenses, including $3 million invested by LiveOne, whereby the terms of the financing value PodcastOne at a pre-money valuation of $60 million.
Commenting on the spin-off announcement, LiveOne CEO, Robert Ellin stated, “The goal of both our management team and board of directors is to maximize stockholder value. PodcastOne has been a tremendous addition to LiveOne since our acquisition in 2020, and we feel strongly that the market value of our stock dramatically undervalues the sum of our parts, which includes our PodcastOne subsidiary. Upon the successful completion of the spin out, we believe PodcastOne will be the only major pure-play podcast company trading on a national exchange.”
PodcastOne President, Kit Gray commented, “The podcasting business has exploded over the past five years and PodcastOne is one of the largest independent podcast companies in the world. The company is one of only two independent podcasting publishers in the top 10 of Podtrac’s list of Top Publishers. We believe that by trading as a separate public company, PodcastOne will have the opportunity to access the public capital markets as well as be better positioned to both acquire podcast platforms and attract significant podcast talent.”
Acquired by LiveOne in 2020, PodcastOne has had more than 2.1 billion downloads a year since its acquisition, across the more than 350 weekly episodes it distributes. It boasts a roster of top podcast programs, including top influencer talent like Adam Carolla, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Jordan Harbinger, The LADYGANG, Kail Lowry, T-Pain, Jay Cutler and Michael Irvin.
