Candy eyes £50million windfall as tech giants mull bid for Audioboom

NICK Candy is eyeing a £50m payday as Amazon and Spotify consider takeover offers for Audioboom.

The property tycoon, who is married to Australian singer and actress Holly Valance (pictured), has a 14.8pc stake in the podcast maker.

His holding was valued at £45m last night after shares rose 10.8pc, or 190p, to 1950p. The shares are up tenfold since the start of 2020 when they were trading at 195p.

Sky News reported that Amazon and Spotify have been considering bids and could swoop this month.

Amazon is said to be working with bankers at JP Morgan on an offer. City sources said a bid would have to top 2250p a share, or £355m. That would value Candy’s stake at £52m.

Audioboom was founded in 2009 and hosts podcasts for the Spectator magazine and former Great British Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins. It helps creators find advertisers for shows, and produces its own podcasts in London and the US, including F1: Beyond the Grid and What Makes a Killer.

It is one of the world’s biggest podcasters and its shows are downloaded 116m times every month by 32m people. A boom in listeners in the pandemic helped it to its first annual profit, earning £1m in 2021.

Audioboom put itself up for sale in 2020 but failed to find a buyer, and rejected an approach last year that would have valued it at £188m.

Spotify and Amazon add to a host of companies thought to have been circling, including Swedish podcast host Acast, believed to be the frontrunner. Others said to be interested include Sony Music, Google and US media company Liberty.

Amazon and Spotify did not comment on reports.