Libsyn raises $25M and will acquire AdvertiseCast

Libsyn, one of the world’s largest podcast hosting companies, announces today that it will acquire AdvertiseCast, a podcast ad planning and buying platform. The purchase is supported by $25-million in funds that the publicly traded company raised privately. Lead investors are Carmac partners and Hudson Executive Capital LP, along with other unnamed investors. While this funding is apparently motivated chiefly to enable the AdvertiseCast purchase, the investment is also intended “to provide Libsyn with additional capital for other strategic acquisitions.”

Libsyn will pay “up to” $30-million for AdvertiseCast, of which $18-million will be forked over in cash. A further $10-million will go out in the form of newly issued Libsyn shares. There is a $2-million earn-out.

AdvertiseCast founder Trevy Smithlin and Dave Hanley will remain with the company as Libsyn employees — that retention is a condition of closing the acquisition.

AdvertiseCast represents over 1,500 podcasts reaching 40-million listeners per month. This ad hoc network supplies an ad inventory of 7,500 spots. Browsing the catalog, an advertiser can dig into show categories, and immediately see the listener reach of any represented show. Each show page on the platform lists advertisers which have bought in the past, audience gender and age statistics, and a roundup of similar shows. That much is basically self-serve ad-repping, but AdvertiseCast also makes it easy to talk with sales people.

“I am thrilled to announce this acquisition. AdvertiseCast is a market leader in the podcast advertising space that will fit perfectly with our existing Libsyn 5 hosting platform. Since we began in 2004, our primary objective at Libsyn has been to enable independent podcasters by providing them with a strong set of tools to help them thrive,” said Libsyn President Laurie Sims. “AdvertiseCast expands our tool set to include a robust monetization solution that enables efficient host-read and programmatic advertising. We expect to generate meaningful revenue by offering the AdvertiseCast solution to Libsyn’s customers and leveraging the combined inventory to attract even more advertisers to the AdvertiseCast platform.”

AdvertiseCast Co-Founders Trevr Smithlin and Dave Hanley commented, “We founded AdvertiseCast with a podcast publisher’s mindset and believe it is a perfect fit with Libsyn’s creator-centric ethos. Given the large growth in the podcasting market, we felt this was the perfect time to join forces with Libsyn in order to accelerate the growth of our business. As a leader in the podcast hosting space, Libsyn has a world-class podcast hosting platform that will deliver meaningful inventory to our podcast advertisers. Advertising is still a very under-penetrated segment of the podcast market, and we believe we are strongly positioned to ride the advertising wave with Libsyn’s support.”

.

Brad Hill