Welcome to the Tech Mem Right Home for Monday, July 13th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, SeriousXM looks like it's stepping up to be the big competitor to Spotify in the

podcasting space by lining up podcasting's biggest ever acquisition. More worrying

signs if you're a regular user of Tik-Toc and again everyone wants a piece of Reliance Geo and a piece of the

Indian market along with it and why Apple is warning people about covering the

camera on your laptop. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Once again, podcasting has made the big headlines today.

Sirius XM has announced that it will be acquiring the E.W. Scripps Podcast Network and producer

unit Stitcher for $325 million. Scripps says Stitcher had 72 and a half million dollars in

revenue in 2019 growing at about a 52% per year annual clip. Note that this is the biggest single acquisition in

podcast history. Spotify has spent more money over the last months overall but

this single acquisition is bigger than when Spotify bought either Anchor or Gimlet.

Variety has some of the industry history for you, quote.

Scripps bought Stitcher for four and a half million dollars in 2016 and combined it with Mid-roll Media, which it bought for 55 million dollars the year prior.

According to E.W. Scripps, the 325 million dollar price tag represents a return of more than 100% on its investment in

podcasting over the last five years. The deal will build on Serious XM's

three billion dollar acquisition last year of Pandora, the music and podcast streaming company.

According to SeriousXM, with the addition of the Stitcher and Midroll networks

to its existing assets, the company will reach over 150 million monthly

listeners across multiple platforms.

The Stitcher Division includes three business lines, the mid-roll advertising rep firm, owned and

operated podcast networks including the comedy focused earwolf and the Stitcher

...