iHeartMedia has agreed to purchase educational media company
HowStuffWorks for approximately $55 million, according to sources. In addition to hosting educational content on its website and YouTube channel, HowStuffWorks publishes a series of audio podcasts including
Stuff You Should Know and
Stuff You Missed in History Class.
On Friday afternoon, the iHeart debtors
filed a motion seeking an order approving the debtors’ purchase of a company, but the identity of that company, HowStuffWorks, as well as the approximately $55 million price of the acquisition was redacted in the filing.
The motion said that the debtors "recognized an opportunity" to purchase the undisclosed company in the spring, adding that the purchase of such business is "important" to the debtors’ participation in a "fast-growing" undisclosed market, which sources indicate refers to the podcast market.
According to
Podtrac, which issues monthly reports on podcast industry rankings,
Stuff You Should Know had the fourth-largest number of unique U.S. audience members in July. As a publisher, HowStuffWorks had the fifth-largest U.S. unique monthly audience in July with 5.39 million total unique audience members who streamed or downloaded the publisher’s content. iHeartRadio ranked fourth in the same category with 5.42 million total unique audience members. Globally, however, HowStuffWorks surpassed iHeartRadio in July streams and downloads with 57.9 million for 36 stations and 47.7 million for 645 stations, respectively.
iHeartMedia and HowStuffWorks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.