https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ny-s ... story.htmlBill Simmons is ready to take his podcasting talent to the next level.
Simmons is selling his The Ringer website and podcast offerings to Spotify in a much-talked about deal that was announced by both the audio streaming subscription service and Simmons himself on Wednesday morning.
“This morning we announced that @spotify is acquiring The Ringer,” Simmons wrote to his 5.8 million Twitter followers. "Couldn’t be more excited to work with @eldsjal [CEO and founder Daniel Ek] and his phenomenal team.
“More details to come down the road... but @ringer will remain @ringer in every respect. They appreciate what we do and they want us to be us.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was reported late last month that Spotify might be shelling out $200 million to buy what Simmons has created. The acquisition of the sports and pop culture site that the former ESPN personality launched in 2016 is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.
The Ringer staff — which formed a union in August of 2019 — had expressed fears of what a sale to Spotify could mean for the non-podcast part of team.
The Ringer Union released a statement after the sale was announced.
“On Wednesday morning, the Ringer Union and the Writers Guild of America East learned that Spotify has purchased The Ringer,” the statement read. “After weeks of public reports about a potential sale circulating without comment from our senior managers, we look forward to hearing from them about how this transaction will affect our day-to-day-work.”
The union also called for a prompt meeting with management to “discuss these matters.”
The union frequently took to social media since the first rumblings of the sale to criticize management for failing to keep them in the loop.
“It’s been two weeks since we formally asked Ringer management to address reports of a potential acquisition,” the union tweeted on Jan. 31. “They have not done so.”
The Ringer staff which numbers approximately 90 employees will be hired by Spotify, according to Vox.
“We spent the last few years building a world-class sports and pop culture multimedia digital company, and believe Spotify can take us to another level,” Simmons said in a statement, via the New York Times. “We couldn’t be more excited to unlock Spotify’s power of scale and discovery, introduce The Ringer to a new global audience and build the world’s flagship sports audio network.”
Simmons, who was dumped by ESPN in 2015 after the World Wide Leader finally grew weary of the outspoken columnist and podcast host (he earned a three-week ban for his 2014 podcast rant in which he called NFL commish Roger Goodell a liar for his handling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case and then dared the network to punish him), landed on his feet when he launched The Ringer website in February 2017.
Although the website features a variety of content, the brand is best known for the nearly 30 podcasts that Simmons’ company produces.
Along with “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” The Ringer features podcasts on the NBA, NFL, baseball, soccer, golf and sports gambling along with pop culture offerings on movies, TV, cooking and more. One of the more popular podcasts — “The Rewatchables” — features Simmons and his regular cast of characters breaking down classic movies from “The Godfather” to “When Harry Met Sally.”
“What [Simmons] has accomplished in just a few short years, it’s nothing short of extraordinary,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told Vox. “It’s not just his own podcast, but his whole network that’s doing really well. He’s a talent magnet.”
Not everything Simmons, 50, has touched since his high-profile exit from ESPN has turned to gold. In addition to The Ringer, Simmons signed on with HBO and created a weekly interview show, “Any Given Wednesday" which made its debut in June 2016. “Any Given Wednesday” was widely panned and the show was canceled after just four and a half months.
Despite the show’s epic failure, Simmons remains tied to HBO and continues to work on documentary projects for the cable giant.
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