George Soros thinks that being in your ears is good for business and maybe even good for politics. In the past two years, the Open Society Foundations have taken over the wealthy investor George Soros's company, Soros Fund Management, making it an even more important player in radio, which is the oldest form of electronic mass media.
The company bought the most shares in Audacy in February. Audacy was the second-largest radio company in the U.S. at the time it went bankrupt, with more than 230 stations and a podcast arm that includes Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios. Soros put an unknown amount of money into Crooked Media in 2022.
Crooked Media is the leftist radio network that makes the very famous show Pod Save America. And in 2022, Univision sold 18 Hispanic radio stations for $60 million to a new company run by Democrats with the help of a business backed by Soros. Republican members of Congress were against the deal, which included conservative Cuban stations with a lot of power in Miami.
Three people who have talked with Soros officials say that the move into the struggling radio business could be the start of a bigger audio buying run.
Additionally, the fund has talked informally about buying other big radio companies, like Cumulus Media, which is a publicly owned company that is having trouble. (Rules that limit who can own radio stations make these kinds of deals harder to happen.)
Michael Del Nin, who is the fund's lead media investor, has met with a lot of important people in digital media and audio over the last year. One of these people is Project Brazen, a podcast business.
People who know about the talks say that it has also been interested in buying a number of other companies. These include Pushkin Industries, the podcast company started by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, and Lemonada, the network best known for Julia Louis-Dreyfus's interview show. A person who works in the podcast business told Semafor that Lemonada is beginning an official process to find a buyer, but some possible buyers have turned down the company's high price.
The company bought the most shares in Audacy in February. Audacy was the second-largest radio company in the U.S. at the time it went bankrupt, with more than 230 stations and a podcast arm that includes Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios. Soros put an unknown amount of money into Crooked Media in 2022.
Crooked Media is the leftist radio network that makes the very famous show Pod Save America. And in 2022, Univision sold 18 Hispanic radio stations for $60 million to a new company run by Democrats with the help of a business backed by Soros. Republican members of Congress were against the deal, which included conservative Cuban stations with a lot of power in Miami.
Three people who have talked with Soros officials say that the move into the struggling radio business could be the start of a bigger audio buying run.
Additionally, the fund has talked informally about buying other big radio companies, like Cumulus Media, which is a publicly owned company that is having trouble. (Rules that limit who can own radio stations make these kinds of deals harder to happen.)
Michael Del Nin, who is the fund's lead media investor, has met with a lot of important people in digital media and audio over the last year. One of these people is Project Brazen, a podcast business.
People who know about the talks say that it has also been interested in buying a number of other companies. These include Pushkin Industries, the podcast company started by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, and Lemonada, the network best known for Julia Louis-Dreyfus's interview show. A person who works in the podcast business told Semafor that Lemonada is beginning an official process to find a buyer, but some possible buyers have turned down the company's high price.
