Audioboom Pays £10M for Adelicious + Revenue and EBITDA Valuation Multiples
July 25, 2025 by Chris Erwin
RockWater Roundup
M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.
Today we discuss Audioboom’s acquisition of Adelicous, a British podcast network and monetization platform. We cover deal details, strategic rationale, revenue and EBITDA valuation multiples, Audioboom financial performance, and the rise in 2025 podcast M&A.
Let’s break it down…
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–TARGET: Adelicious–
Overview
- British podcast network and monetization platform for professional podcasters
- Founded in 2020 by Pascal Hughes and David McGuire as invite-only network
- Built “by podcasters for podcasters”
- Home to 200+ leading podcasts including Russell Howard’s Five Brilliant Things, The Teen Commandments with Sara Cox and Clare Hamilton, and History Extra
- HQ’d in Bristol and London, UK
- 12 FT employees
Company Highlights
- Monthly audience of 20M downloads and views
- Network listens increased 314% YoY in 2023
- Delivered 1B ad impressions since 2020
Business Lines
- Premium Podcast Hosting & Monetization: Invite-only network providing hosting, advertising sales, and revenue optimization for premium podcast content
- Brand Partnership Services: Custom promotional campaign packages via direct advertiser relationships with high-profile brands including Amex, Airbnb, Fever Tree, Virgin Atlantic, Peloton, Warner Bros, Slack
Capital Markets History
- Jul ’25: Acquired by Audioboom for up to £10M
Financials:
(via deal press release)
- FY 2025F Revenue: $7.6M, Up 58% YoY
- FY 2025F EBITDA: $0.7M
- FY 2024 Revenue: $4.8M, Up 12% YoY
- FY 2024 EBITDA: $0M
- FY 2023 Revenue: $4.3M
- FY 2023 EBITDA: ($0.1M)
–BUYER: Audioboom–
Overview
- Global podcast company providing ad-tech and monetization platform
- Operates internationally with distribution across Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, etc
- Founded in 2009 by Mark Rock, evolved from music social networking to podcast-focused platform
- Publicly traded on London AIM: BOOM
- 51+ FT Employees
- Based in NY and UK
Company Highlights
- 100M monthly downloads by 35-38M unique listeners worldwide in Q2 2025
- Premium British podcast roster includes No Such Thing As A Fish, Dig It with Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley, Beyond The Grid (Formula 1), and The Cycling Podcast
- Key US partnerships include True Crime Obsessed, The Tim Dillon Show
- Global operations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
Business Lines
- Premium: Direct sales to brand advertisers
- Showcase Marketplace: Tech-based global advertising marketplace, fastest-growing segment
- Sonic Integrated Marketing: Managed services for select brands
Stock Price
- £335 as of 7.21.25
- Down 7.6% MoM
- Up 34% YoY
Financials:
(via public filings and stockanalysis.com)
- FY 2024 Revenue: $73.4M
- FY 2024 EBITDA: $1.1M
- FY 2024 EBITDA Margin: 1.5%
- H1 2025 Revenue: $35.1M
- H1 2024 Revenue: $34.1M
- Up 3% YoY
- H1 2025 EBITDA: $1.8M
- H1 2024 EBITDA: $0.3M
- Up 500% YoY
Valuation
- Key data (GBP converted to USD)…
- Mkt Cap: $71.4M
- C&CE: $2.6M
- Total Debt: $0.9M
- Enterprise Value: $69.9M
- Enterprise Value Multiples…
- 2024 Revenue: 1.0x
- 2024 EBITDA: 65.3x
- LTM Jun 2025 Revenue: 0.9x
- LTM Jun 2025 EBITDA: 27.2x
- H2 EBITDA: 0.8M
Capital Markets History
- Jul’25: Acquired Adelicious for up to £10M
- Jul’25: Raised £3M in PIPE funding (sold 1.1M shares to new and existing investors to fund Adelicious purchase)
- Apr’17: Went public on LSE under ticker BOOM, 18% of company sold
- Apr’17: Raised £0.5M in PIPE funding led by Edge Investments
- Mar’17: Raised £4M in PIPE funding
- Aug’16: Raised £2.5M in PIPE funding
- Aug’16: Acquired SONR News for £1.9M
–DEAL DETAILS–
Overview
- Announced July 16, 2025
- £10M total maximum consideration
- 100% buyout
Deal Structure
- £10M total maximum consideration
- £4.5M initial consideration (45% of total)…
- 60% cash (£2.7M)
- 40% new Audioboom shares (£1.8M)
- £3.0M deferred consideration…
- Performance based tied to FY25 revenue targets
- £2.5M contingent consideration…
- Tied to revenue performance of the SMA (Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed.) podcast contract
Deal Valuation
- 𝗡𝗼 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘁 (£4.5M)…
- FY 2024 revenue: 1.3x
- FY 2025F revenue: 0.8x
- FY 2025F EBITDA: 8.7x
- 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘁 (£10M)…
- FY 2024 revenue: 2.8x
- FY 2025F revenue: 1.8x
- FY 2025F EBITDA: 19.4x
Strategic Rationale
- Market Consolidation & Geographic Expansion: Positions Audioboom as consolidator in fragmented UK market where per-capita podcast ad spend is $1.60 vs. $7.00 in US
- Revenue Synergies: Immediate access to Audiboom’s Showcase marketplace expected to boost Adelicious monetization
- Content Portfolio: Adds premium British content to complement existing Audioboom roster
Post-Deal Operations
- Andrew Goldsmith to become President of consolidated UK division under Adelicious brand and join Audioboom executive team
- 2 founders will not remain with company
- Adelicious to operate as distinct business unit with focus on business development and commercial operations
- Integration plan includes connecting Adelicious show and media inventory to Showcase marketplace within 30 days
–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–
- Valuation multiples highlight a premium to market precedent, though the company may believe otherwise. There’s an interesting quote at Investing.com “The transaction represents an enterprise value to sales multiple of approximately 1.0x, compared to industry standard multiples of 3-4x, according to the company.” Let’s break that down, because I’m not sure our data support that.
- Our valuation analysis above, for just the upfront consideration portion of deal, shows the deal was done at 1.3x 2024 revenue. Since 2024 EBITDA was $0M, the multiple is NA. For 2025, or on a forward basis, the revenue and EBITDA multiples are 0.8x and 8.7x.
- As benchmarks, let’s review a few deals where there’s public data. Also of note, our M&A deal experience shows that most podcast advertising and agency sales businesses are valued on EBITDA multiples, and not revenue, unless perhaps the company is very high growth or has a unique reason for depressed EBITDA. Adelicious grew 12% YoY for 2024 and was about breakeven, though is forecast to grow revenue at 58% this year. This would still make me think most buyers in the space would compare the valuation on a EBITDA multiple basis.
- The deal benchmarks include Insignia’s $104M acquisition of Veritone ONE, which was 8.9x TTM EBITDA, and that was a significantly bigger company with higher EBITDA margins (our deal analysis). There’s also Moburst’s $700k acquisition of Kitcaster, with valuation multiples of 0.5x revenue and 3.5x EBITDA (our deal analysis), a smaller deal, but again with higher EBITDA margins. Lastly, I think of TCG’s $40M investment into Audiochuck, with an estimated EBITDA valuation estimate of 4.5x, which admittedly feels very low and I may be off. (our deal analysis).
- Thus, at a forward 8.7x EBITDA, the deal doesn’t feel low relative to the rest of the industry, but actually a premium. Also, our team doesn’t see most deals at 3-4x revenue in the current market; that would be very high for an agency services business, even a fast-growing one!
- The counterpoint to all of this is the expected revenue and cost synergy with Audioboom. If the buyer believes the deal will be immediately accretive (higher earnings per share post deal) and in a meaningful way, then paying a premium relative to market to win the deal and close quickly could make sense. This is particularly true for a target company that does about 10% of current Audioboom revenue, and where the upfront purchase price is under 10% of current enterprise value. Add on top of that the fact of UK’s still maturing podcast ad market and fragmentation, and there may be financial rationale to be aggressive here. Though to confirm, this doesn’t feel below market valuations 😉
- Majority of deal consideration is via earnout, with nearly half tied to specific show performance. The 55% earnout component (£5.5M of £10M total) is based on revenue performance milestones. Of that, £3M is tied to overall 2025 revenue growth, and £2.5M is tied to revenue performance of the SMA (Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed.) podcast contract. The structure incentivizes Adelicious team to drive growth during integration period, and protects Audioboom if financial performance and synergies don’t materialize.
- The SMA -specific earnout stands out – the show is one of the UK’s most popular podcasts, and signals how meaningful that show is to Adelicious financial growth, since it likely represents a very high revenue concentration within the Adelicious client portfolio. It wasn’t disclosed what the deal consideration is for the earnout portion i.e. is it just cash, or a mix of cash and stock similar to the mix for the upfront consideration in the deal e.g. 60% cash and 40% Audioboom shares. Most earnouts have a more meaningful cash component, but TBD the specifics here.
- Also of note, in most recent podcast deals, the founders and top management were kept on post acquisition. Like when Fox acquired RSV (our deal analysis), Moburst acquired Kitcaster, and Podx acquired Lemonada (our deal analysis). For this deal, we see Andrew Goldsmith from Adelicious leadership staying on with Audioboom in a more senior role, but the two founders are departing. Surprising considering the relatively small scale of the company in both revenue ($7M) and team size (12 employees), and significant 58% growth planned for 2025. I’d thus think keeping the founders on to help drive continued performance and also achieve earnout would be critical. But I don’t know the specific roles of each team member, and so perhaps the founder roles were redundant with Audioboom leadership, and their departures also create immediate cost synergies to lift EBITDA going forward.
- Fragmented US + UK market creates consolidation opportunities. The podcast market is highly fragmented, with over 100 independent networks generating 75% of US and UK revenue, while the top 10 networks take only 25%. This fragmentation complicates campaign execution across small networks but offers significant opportunities for acquirers like Audioboom to consolidate smaller players at attractive prices.
- Growing UK podcast M&A activity. Both Audioboom and PodX’s recent moves show renewed international interest in the UK podcast market. Specifically in the UK, Podx bought Platform media for an 8-figure valuation in 2024 (our deal analysis), and Listen in 2023. The reason is that per-capita UK podcast ad spend is still significantly below the US ($1.60 vs $7.00), but that gap is narrowing. Networks like Adelicious bring premium content and audience scale that will benefit as UK podcast matures, recruits new advertisers and wins bigger budgets, and CPMs increase.
- 2025 podcast M&A momentum remains strong, with increased strategic buyer diversity. Major podcast deals are reshaping the 2025 market landscape. PodX spent $30M for Lemonada Media to break into the US market, while Moburst acquired both Kitcaster and Rhythm Communications to strengthen its US agency capabilities and client reach. Audioboom’s acquisition of Adelicious highlights how a growing array of companies, from public to private, and from podcast-native to non-endemics, are competing for a share of the global podcast ad spend market as it approaches $4.5B+ this year.
- The latest podcast acquisitions show a clear growth playbook. Platforms like Audioboom and PodX are focused on growing audiences, cross-selling content, and increasing adtech-driven revenue. With Adelicious, Audioboom can immediately plug new shows into its Showcase marketplace, widen UK sales, and use its technology to monetize the Adelicious portfolio more effectively. This mirrors PodX’s move to leverage Lemonada’s top talent in global sales and distribution channels for faster growth. The strategy is about rapid integration, leveraging audience scale, and improving portfolio monetization.
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris@wearerockwater.com
