It was a bit of a head-scratcher when Amazon announced it was spending nearly $1 billion in cash to buy Twitch, but it turns out that once again the retailer was ahead of the curve, realizing that a lot of people wanted to watch other people play video games.
Why it matters: Twitch is now the most popular streaming platform for gamers, with 15 million daily users watching 2.2 million broadcasters. (80% of them are male.)
Spotify is in talks to buy Gimlet Media — a Brooklyn-based podcasting company co-founded by former “This American Life” producer Alex Blumberg — for more than $200 million, Recode first reported and the WSJ confirmed.
The big picture: Apple dominates podcast distribution right now. And while Spotify has been promoting podcasts to its base of 200 million users in recent months, this would be the company's first big move into podcasting, as it works to enhance its narrative-audio offerings. It would also mark Spotify’s first purchase of a content production and distribution company.
