Photo Credit: LiveOne
LiveOne (NASDAQ: LVO) has officially confirmed that it “remains committed” to spinning off its PodcastOne subsidiary “as a separate public company to be listed on a national exchange.”
Los Angeles-headquartered LiveOne, which in November highlighted its plans for PodcastOne, just recently confirmed the spin-off via a formal release. In this announcement message, execs made clear that they expected to file the corresponding S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission by today, December 27th, having previously set (and then delayed) a December 15th deadline.
At the time of this writing, said S-1 wasn’t yet available via the SEC’s public collection of LiveOne regulatory submissions. However, LiveOne – which reported all-time-high revenue of $23.53 million in Q3 2022 – has likewise moved the record date (for the dividend payout to existing shareholders) to January 15th.
For reference, PodcastOne’s “U.S. unique monthly audience” in September of this year “surpassed 6.7 million,” according to LiveOne, which pinpointed $2.43 million in net income attributable to its audio division (including Slacker and PodcastOne) for 2022’s third quarter.
Also in the release doubling down on PodcastOne’s spin-off, the publicly traded business indicated that it “intends to explore spinning-out SlackerOne as a separate public company during its 2024 fiscal year.”
During today’s trading hours, the stock of LiveOne, which is aiming to attract 10 million subscribers and generate $1 billion in revenue “within a five-year period,” dipped by 7.58 percent from the previous close to finish at 54 cents per share.
The figure reflects a 24.63 percent slip during the past month as well as a 57.53 percent falloff since 2022’s beginning. Upon detailing its Q3 2022 financials in November, LiveOne said that it would expand an existing share-buyback program by purchasing another $2 million in stock by the year’s conclusion.
PodcastOne’s anticipated spin-off would arrive amid stiff competition from well-entrenched (and deep-pocketed) players including YouTube, Spotify, SiriusXM, and Apple Music.
Spotify is still hunting for podcast listeners despite making a number of related cuts on the year, and chief financial officer Paul Vogel has made clear his belief that the segment is nevertheless positioned to become profitable in the not-so-distant future.
Additionally, emerging platforms such as Copenhagen’s Podimo (which announced a $59 million raise in September) are also vying for listeners in the ever-crowded spoken word arena. And with only so many hours in the day – and so much time to dedicate to audio entertainment – it’ll be worth following the impact of ongoing live-radio and audiobook buildouts in the new year and beyond.