PodcastOne’s trading debut is being met with drama right at the time it needs positive news coverage.
Set to begin trading today, September 8, under the symbol PODC, PodcastOne will be priced between $8-12 per share, giving it a valuation of $230 – $274 million. But recent claims emerging of wrongdoing by a PodcastOne subsidiary may put pressure on the price.
Attempting to profit off of the growing podcasting industry, LiveOne (LVO) announced the spinoff of it’s podcasting unit, PodcastOne, in July, 2022.
But the day before the stock was set to begin trading, Theo Von, the host of This Past Weekend gave some inside details surrounding the stock’s debut that may bode negative for the company. That’s because Von claims that Kast Media, a podcast production company that PodcastOne has entered into a LOI to acquire, has stolen his advertising revenue.
Von claims that Kast Media broke it’s contractual agreement to pay out his podcast’s advertisement revenue despite collecting the money. Von claims that he was jilted out of “six figures” with other podcasts losing more than seven figures.
“We’re part of a larger group of podcasts that were stolen from. I’ve just between talking with folks, there’s up to $4 million that I know of that people were taking advantage of.”
Von specifically calls out one individual at Kast Media – Colin Thompson – as the person who refused to pay.
You can listen to the entire conversation below.
Von then goes on to claim that after removing his podcast from Kast Media due to breach of contract, he was contacted by the team at LiveOne / PodcastOne where Colin Thompson was now working after the acquisition.
Von claims that PodcastOne stated that they would pay him the money he was owed if he would join their new network. Furthermore, he claims that the team at PodcastOne stated the payment would come partially in the form of stock.
“They tell me that ‘If you come over to our new network, that we’ll pay you, some of which you’re owed in stock.’ But the stock hasn’t gone public. So they’re trying to — it felt like to me they’re trying to leverage our podcast and other podcasts to then make their stock do well”
While Theo Von isn’t the first podcast to make claims against Kast Media and PodcastOne, he is the largest.
Investors shouldn’t take his claims lightly as Von’s This Past Weekend podcast is consistently a top 10 podcast on Spotify.
The question now is how much impact these claims will have on future talent joining up with PodcastOne.