Acast today acquired Backyard Ventures for $20 million, adding a United States network of more than 200 creators whose audiences extend to 230 million monthly YouTube views and 35.5 million newsletter subscribers.

The Stockholm-listed podcast company Acast disclosed the transaction at 18:00 CEST on August 11, 2026, treating it as inside information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. Completion occurred concurrently with signing, which means the deal is done rather than pending. Backyard Ventures is now a wholly-owned subsidiary, acquired through a membership interest purchase agreement.

The price is modest by the standards of media consolidation, and the structure is conservative. What makes the transaction worth reading closely is the asset behind it: a roster that sells across audio, video, newsletters and social, at a moment when the audio-only sale is losing its grip on the premium end of the podcast market.

What $20 million buys

The total consideration is $20 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis. Of that, $16 million is cash payable at closing, funded from Acast's existing cash resources without external financing. The remaining $4 million comes in Acast shares on a deferred schedule.

Backyard Ventures generated $16.1 million in revenue during 2025, according to Acast, based on the company's unaudited accounts. That figure represents a compound annual growth rate of 65% since 2023, which implies a 2023 revenue base of roughly $5.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 12%, putting absolute adjusted EBITDA near $1.9 million.

Run the arithmetic and the headline price sits at approximately 1.2 times trailing revenue and roughly ten times trailing adjusted EBITDA. For a business tripling its top line in two years, that is not an aggressive multiple. It is also not a distressed one.

The share component

The deferred equity portion carries more detail than most disclosures of this size. The number of shares underlying the $4 million was calculated at closing using the volume-weighted average price for the 30 trading days prior to closing, producing 1,005,671 shares. Those shares are subject to a downward value protection mechanism.

Acast retains flexibility on settlement. The company may satisfy the component through newly issued shares, shares acquired in the market, cash, or some combination. Where newly issued shares are used, maximum dilution comes to approximately 0.6% based on shares outstanding at closing. Half of the component is expected to be delivered on the second anniversary of closing, the other half on the third.

A customary retention arrangement has been agreed with Backyard Ventures' founder. Acast stated that the acquisition aligns with its stated mergers and acquisitions strategy, does not alter the company's overall risk profile, and is not expected to have a material impact on financial position or short-term financial results, while being anticipated to deliver strategic value over the longer term.

Backyard Ventures was advised by DuBois Bryant & Campbell LLP, led by partner Shana McGirl as legal advisor, and by Yale Yee of Telos Advisors as mergers and acquisitions advisor.

The audience numbers behind the roster

Backyard Ventures represents more than 200 creators. Its roster includes Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic, Piers Morgan's Uncensored, A Little Bit Culty, SB Mowing on YouTube, and shows from bestselling authors Cal Newport (Deep Questions) and Mark Manson (Solved).

The consumption figures split across four surfaces:

  • 11.5 million monthly listens globally
  • 46 million simulcast views
  • 230 million monthly YouTube views across creator audiences
  • 35.5 million newsletter subscribers

The gap between those numbers is the commercial argument. Audio listens are the smallest of the four, and YouTube views are twenty times larger than them. A network selling audio inventory alone would be pricing a fraction of the attention its creators command. That mismatch is what an omnichannel sales structure attempts to close.

For advertisers, the practical consequence is inventory concentration. A brand wanting Ryan Holiday's audience has previously needed separate conversations for the podcast feed, the YouTube channel and the newsletter, often with different rate cards and no shared measurement. Acast is positioning the combined entity as a single point of entry across those surfaces.

Austin, and what stays

Backyard Ventures' team is staying with the business. Its Austin operation becomes Acast's base in the city, giving the Swedish company a physical foothold in a United States podcast market it describes as strategically important. The Backyard Ventures brand will be retired as the company is integrated into Acast.

That last detail is not cosmetic. Retiring the brand signals full absorption rather than a portfolio-holding structure, which is the same approach Acast took with Wonder Media Network, acquired in December 2024 and folded into a division named Acast Creative Studios.

What the executives said

"Backyard Ventures has curated one of the strongest creator rosters in the US, alongside specialist teams with deep expertise in selling audio, video, social and newsletters," said Greg Glenday, CEO of Acast. "That's the perfect complement to what we've spent years developing - the technology, demand, and global scale to run omnichannel campaigns for creators: it's an incredibly powerful combination. This is the future of podcast monetization, and we're building it now."

Matt Cisneros, Founder and CEO of Backyard Ventures, framed the sale around infrastructure. "Acast is the ideal home for our business, sharing our people-centric, entrepreneurial culture and our belief that creators deserve a partner who can serve their entire audience, not just one channel," he said. "Joining Acast gives our creators and sellers the infrastructure and scale, both in the US and globally, that would have taken us years to build, while allowing us to keep doing what we do best. We have always been creator-first, and I'm excited to accelerate that success with our shared vision."

According to Acast, the two businesses are complementary in a specific way: Acast supplies enterprise-grade ad technology, scaled direct and programmatic advertiser demand, and global campaign infrastructure, while Backyard Ventures supplies premium United States inventory, video sponsorship expertise, direct response and brand direct relationships, and channel-by-channel selling.

Video sponsorship is the strategic prize

Acast singled out video sponsorships as the capability that matters most. The company said podcasting is rapidly becoming a visual medium as well as an audio one, and that Backyard Ventures' specialist teams give it an advantage in one of the fastest-growing parts of the market.

Acast's own record over the past six months supports why video expertise carries a premium. The company was named one of four launch hosting providers when Apple Podcasts introduced HTTP Live Streaming video infrastructure with dynamic ad insertion in February 2026, and it entered that integration carrying more shows than any other provider. On April 30, 2026, Acast hired two video specialists, upgraded studios in Stockholm and Oslo, and activated HLS distribution in Sweden. Two weeks later it ran the first integrated video advertising campaigns on Apple Podcasts, with State Farm and T-Mobile as lead brands, reporting 117 active shows, more than 1,000 published episodes, and 60% additive daily audience growth.

By the second quarter, that footprint had grown past 180 shows and 1,000 episodes live with video on Apple Podcasts.

Selling video, however, requires people who know how to sell it. Host-read audio spots and video sponsorship integrations are different products with different creative requirements, different pricing and different buyers. Backyard Ventures brings sellers who have been working the second of those markets.

How this fits Acast's financial position

Acast reported second-quarter net sales of SEK 775.6 million on July 23, 2026, up 28% reported and 29% organic. The more instructive figure was the split beneath it: average revenue per listen or view climbed 26% to SEK 0.69 while listens and views rose only 2%. Price did nearly all the work. Volume was close to flat.

That divergence explains the logic of buying a roster rather than buying scale. Acast has been extracting more revenue from a broadly stable base of consumption. Backyard Ventures adds both incremental inventory and, more importantly, inventory types that carry different unit economics: video sponsorships and newsletter placements are priced against different benchmarks than dynamically inserted audio spots.

The $16.1 million revenue contribution is small against Acast's quarterly run rate, which is consistent with the company's statement that no material short-term financial impact is expected. Acast connects more than 140,000 storytellers with more than 4,000 advertisers globally and trades on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ACAST ticker.

Why this matters for the marketing community

Three shifts sit underneath this transaction, and each has been visible in the numbers for over a year.

Spending momentum is real but concentrated. Global podcast advertising reached a single-month record of $408 million in December 2025, the highest figure in Magellan AI's dataset, capping a year in which monthly spend rarely dipped below $300 million. Fourth-quarter 2025 spending grew 32% year over year as 1,482 brands entered the channel for the first time. United States podcast ad revenue reached a record $2.9 billion for 2025.

Measurement confidence lags the money. Only 13% of advertisers confidently use audio attribution tools, according to Bauer Media Audio research covered previously, even as the channel absorbs record spend. Magellan AI's first-quarter 2026 benchmarks put podcast ad purchase conversion at 5.22% among listeners who visited an advertiser site, with host-read placements generating a 2.45% response rate against 1.93% for programmatic. Infrastructure has been catching up: five audio platforms including Acast gained Comscore transcript-level targeting on July 22, 2026, and Acast launched pre-bid episode-level targeting with Barometer in January 2026.

Creators no longer live on one surface. Sounds Profitable's Podcast Atlas research found that 73% of listeners would follow creators across formats, and that 71% of podcast creators now produce video. Media buyers who plan audio, video and email as separate line items are describing a division that no longer matches how audiences consume.

The competitive context is equally direct. SiriusXM Media became the exclusive advertising representative for YouTube audio inventory in the United States on April 22, 2026, and has been buying exclusive rights to creator-led shows including video and YouTube channels. Spotify used its 2026 Investor Day to position podcasts as a second profit engine with memberships and interactive formats. iHeartMedia and TikTok built a creator podcast network from 25 shows in November 2025. Every large seller is assembling cross-format creator supply, and the sellers assembling it fastest will set the terms on which brands buy it.

For agencies, the practical near-term question is rate-card behavior. Consolidating four surfaces under one seller can lower transaction cost for buyers, or it can raise effective pricing by removing the option to buy the cheapest surface in isolation. Acast's second-quarter figures showed pricing rising while volume stalled, and that pattern is the one worth watching after integration.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Acast AB, the Stockholm-listed podcast company led by chief executive Greg Glenday, acquired Backyard Ventures, a United States creator network founded and led by Matt Cisneros. Anders Hagg serves as Acast's chief financial officer and deputy chief executive. Backyard Ventures was advised by DuBois Bryant & Campbell LLP, led by partner Shana McGirl, and by Yale Yee of Telos Advisors.

What: A $20 million acquisition on a cash-free, debt-free basis, comprising $16 million in cash at closing and $4 million in Acast shares payable on a deferred schedule, representing 1,005,671 shares and maximum dilution of approximately 0.6%. Backyard Ventures represents more than 200 creators and generated $16.1 million in 2025 revenue with a 12% adjusted EBITDA margin and a 65% compound annual growth rate since 2023.

When: The transaction was disclosed at 18:00 CEST on August 11, 2026, as inside information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation, with completion occurring concurrently with signing.

Where: Acast is headquartered in Stockholm and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ACAST ticker. Backyard Ventures operates from Austin, Texas, which becomes Acast's base in the city.

Why: Acast is buying cross-format sales capability at a point when the most valuable podcasters build audiences across audio, video, social and newsletters, and when video sponsorship carries pricing that audio-only inventory does not. The roster reaches 11.5 million monthly listens, 46 million simulcast views, 230 million monthly YouTube views and 35.5 million newsletter subscribers, giving Acast inventory across surfaces its existing technology can already measure and sell.