Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress.com is buying Pocket Casts. Pocket Casts is a podcast app and was owned by a public media group. The app will remain functioning under the co-founders Russel Ivanovic and Philip Simpson. Automattic is planning to integrate the podcast app into the company’s blogging tools.
A WordPress.com blog post states the company’s decision that they will “explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts, making it easier to distribute and listen to podcasts”.
Anchor, which is owned by Spotify had already teamed up with WordPress.com in an attempt to turn written materials into podcasts. It will be interesting to watch whether Pocket Casts will add something to this partnership.
Automattic has not disclosed the amount it had paid to acquire the podcast app. Pocket Casts was launched in 2010 and was sold to NPR and then to a group of other public media groups. It had started monetizing the app through the subscription of Pocket Casts Plus. Reports state that the app will remain free. Even though it is a listening app, it is innovative in creating new features and curation. Automattic will not cut down the app instead it may push people towards the app from its already existing users.
