The companies did not disclose a sale price, but Spotify said it intends to hire Simmons and the 90 employees of his sports and pop culture-focused website and podcast network. In its fourth-quarter earnings released Wednesday morning, Spotify reported “exponential growth” in podcast consumption on its platform. (The Wall Street Journal, Recode)

Talking point: This is Spotify’s fourth acquisition of a podcast company in the last 12 months; last year, it spent about US$400 million to buy Gimlet Media, Anchor and Parcast. Podcasting is growing fast: Edison Research estimated last year that 32 per cent of people in the US over age 12—some 90 million people—had listened to a podcast in the last month. The acquisition comes as Spotify’s rivals try to catch up to its lead, at 124 million subscribers: Apple Music has over 60 million subscribers and Amazon Music with more than 55 million. “With The Ringer, we’re basically getting the new ESPN,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said.