Audioboom plans US listing after podcast company suffers £7m loss due to iOS changes

Podcast platform Audioboom is considering a US listing as part of efforts to boost shareholder returns, with the group’s chief executive convinced its shares are “significantly undervalued”.

Audioboom shares fell on Monday after the group revealed that an update to Apple’s iOS operating system cost the AIM-listed company $9m (£7m) in revenue in the first half of the year alone.

Boss Stuart Last told shareholders that Apple’s iOS17 update had caused “deep cuts” to Audioboom’s advertising inventory (or the total amount of advertising space for sale) and therefore “restricted” revenue.

It was a double blow for Audioboom, which continues to battle an “advertising market downturn,” according to Last.

The group, which hosts the popular F1: Beyond the Net podcast – and is also home to our This is money podcast – recorded 94.8 million global monthly downloads in the second quarter, plummeting from 125.9 million a year earlier.

Audioboom said: ‘While Audioboom has added a number of new Tier 1 podcasts to the creator network over the past year, Apple’s iOS17 update in late 2023 has materially reduced and refocused download reporting across the podcast industry at large, declining by an average of 32 percent.

‘We expect the impact of the iOS17 update to create more favorable long-term business conditions in the podcast industry due to the higher levels of return on investment that more accurate download data will provide to advertisers.’

Audioboom shares fell 9.4 percent to 226.5 pence on Monday morning, bringing losses since the start of the year to more than 20 percent.

The shares have lost almost 80 per cent since trading at 1,060 pence in December 2005, and almost 90 per cent since their April 2022 peak of 2,260 pence.

Audioboom still grew revenue 7 percent year-over-year in the first half to $34.1 million, helped by strong growth in its global advertising marketplace Showcase.

The company posted adjusted earnings before loss of $300,000, the same level as a year earlier, and the second quarter represented the third consecutive quarter of profit after posting a loss last year.

Audioboom said it has more than $65 million in revenue booked for 2024, more than its total revenue for 2023 and with more than five months of the year remaining.

Latest added: ‘We’ve achieved these results despite the double whammy of the advertising market downturn, now followed by deep cuts to our advertising inventory due to Apple’s iOS17 update, which changed the way listeners download content.

‘These external impacts are frustrating: the iOS17 change restricted our revenue in the first half of the year by approximately $9 million.

‘I remain extremely optimistic about our future and believe the company remains significantly undervalued.

‘As such, the Board is actively working to understand the benefits and requirements of listing Audioboom in the US in order to increase the valuation of the business, as well as evaluating transactional opportunities to give the Company greater scale.’