PodcastOne, home of Adam Carolla and Cold Case Files, weighs a sale
PodcastOne, the network behind the Adam Carolla Show, Cold Case Files, Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, The Jordan Harbinger Show, LadyGang and Varnamtown, said on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 that it has “received inbound interest from multiple strategic parties regarding a potential acquisition of the Company.”
Nothing changes for listeners today. Episodes keep arriving on the same feeds, and no buyer has been named. If a sale happens, the part you would eventually notice is who sells the ads in those shows and which other podcasts get promoted inside them.
According to the company’s announcement, the board has formed a special committee of independent directors to oversee the process and intends to hire an investment banker to help. The board “believes the Company’s current stock price does not reflect the value of its business.” Executive Chairman Robert Ellin said: “We intend to run a rigorous, competitive process on behalf of all shareholders.”
The market took the hint. PodcastOne shares closed at $2.45 on October 28, up from $1.80 the day before, a jump of about 36 percent, according to Yahoo Finance closing prices. They ended the week at $2.39.
What a buyer would be getting
- The No. 6 podcast publisher in the US by Podtrac’s count, with more than 1 billion monthly impressions, per the announcement.
- More than 200 podcasters, with the company naming Adam Carolla, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Jordan Harbinger, LadyGang, A&E’s Cold Case Files and Varnamtown as its headline titles.
- $61.7 million in revenue for the fiscal year that ended in March 2026, and a library of 750,000 hours of content the company pitches for AI training and data licensing.
The timing has a wrinkle. In a filing dated October 30, PodcastOne said its interim chief financial officer, Craig Christensen, told the company on October 26 that he is leaving to pursue another opportunity, effective October 30. The company says the departure “is not as a result of any dispute” and that it has started looking for a successor. So the sale process begins with no chief financial officer in place at all.
PodcastOne is a subsidiary of LiveOne, which said on September 17 that it had raised its holding to 20.8 million PodcastOne shares and that the two companies were exploring a consolidation into one public company. Whatever the committee recommends, LiveOne’s view will carry weight.
We think a sale is more likely than not, given that the company is saying this out loud, but “multiple strategic parties” is a phrase that covers everything from a serious bid to a polite phone call. No timetable has been given.
Until there is one, the Adam Carolla Show, Cold Case Files and the rest of the roster carry on as usual on PlayPodcast and everywhere else.
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