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Investment Firm Acquiring Audiobook Producer

This article is more than 5 years old.

This week, global investment firm KKR announced its intent to acquire audiobook producer RBmedia from Shamrock Capital.

RBmedia, based in Maryland, claims to be "the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the world," offering up 35,000 titles, while also owning two major distribution channels: Audiobooks.com, a digital audiobook subscription platform, and a distribution platform catered towards libraries. Some of its authors include Danielle Steel and Dean Koontz.

There's a clear publishing industry trend, at the moment, towards audio and away from other digital offerings, like e-books. Last month, the American Association of Publishers reported that its participating publishers saw a 29.5% increase in net audiobook revenues in 2017 over 2016. This dramatic earnings increase has come to be expected of the format, which has seen enormous success over the past several years.

The major e-book player is currently Audible, with its production division, Audible Studios. Audible was purchased by Amazon in 2008 for $300 million. It's yet to be seen how much the RBmedia deal will close for, but there's clear value in a market that continues to grow.