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Ok thx.

Access denied for “data protection reasons “! Any chance of a copy and paste BigShow

The H1 statement and Investors Meeting should enlightening! Depends what questions Stuart picks out of the hat!

Big Show - You mentioned something about personnel reorganisation last week. I haven’t seen anything announced?

Stuart Last has already announced that H1 results will be released on 16th July though maybe there will be a flash trading update in first few days of July which has been done before.

Too hot and I’d certainly give you a swerve at the golf club bar. What a complete bore

Can’t argue with your logic PoeB. The AIM circus certainly played its part is scuppering a potential deal. How could the board recommend an offer substantially below a broker’s note target of £13 and how could a buyer justify a whopping premium once the price had drifted to below £6.

I think we can agree that the problem was playing this out in the public domaine and whoever leaked it has a lot to answer for.

Incidentally I suppose no buying from Tobin as he’s inside with the H1 timetable.

Exactly mcsquares. If the offer was around a minimum of £6 then the discount at today’s priceis as you say 33%. Nice buying and you’re going to show a very good profit - I hope!

The fragmented market dynamics and Audioboom's strong platform, market standing and strength of its business model, uniquely position it to be a cautious participant in the anticipated market consolidation. Audioboom's platform business is primed for disciplined growth through a disciplined M&A strategy delivering further scale and operational leverage. The focus of Audioboom's M&A efforts are to build on the Company's strong presence in the UK and US by adding critical mass in complementary geographies including the UK, and through expanding the platform's technology capabilities with enhancements across ad tech, AI and monetisation. Audioboom's M&A value creation hypothesis centres on using its fully integrated platform to target companies through enhanced monetisation, distribution, marketing and data.

The goal of this inorganic strategy combined with organic growth is to achieve $240m revenue by 2030, with KPI performance improving from 101 million monthly downloads with $67 revenue per 1,000 downloads (RPM) in 2025, to 250 million monthly downloads and $80 RPM in 2030

Please bear with me as I endeavour to bring some reflection on what’s happened over the past 9 months. At the moment private investors are feeling a bit raw after the announcement two weeks ago that the Strategic Review had ended. There’s been much comment here, some positive, some constructive criticism and then the negative narrative. The market reaction has seen the share price pull back to a value just about 10% above a year ago.

To say that the board hasn’t got a plan is untrue. When the announcement of the Adelicious acquisition was made on 16th July 2025 there was a section under “ Background to the Acquistion and Placing and Overview of Audioboom and the Podcast Market”. I’ll paste this in a subsequent post as it gives at length full details of the board’s strategy for the company.

Then came the press speculation and the response by the company on 3rd October announcing a Strategic Review.

The board obviously thought it was the right time to test the market ( and they were proved right given the momentum that the business has had over the last 9 months). I don’t believe the plan was to do this process publicly under a formal strategic review - but the leak in the press back in October forced them in to that. I would think the board wanted a slow and steady process and meant to done quietly, after all this was not an auction process for a distressed company.

There were many ( I saw somewhere 100) potential acquirers who were communicated with - probably a mix of media and strategic buyers as well as private equity. So anyone and everyone that would be a potential suitor was spoken with at various levels. However, the fast growth that Audioboom’s business has seen this year and was constantly updating as shown in the trading update 2 weeks ago was probably not being seen in valuations from the 3 interested parties. They must have been focused on 2025 numbers. As was announced, the ending of the SR drew a line on those 3 conversations specifically.

The plan management set out to shareholders (which was met very positivtely) after it acquired Adelicious was to focus on an M&A/platform strategy that would take the company to ~$240m of revenue in 2030... management are now able to focus on that plan.

At this moment an investor has to reassess. The company is strong and on a substantial upward momentum. The board is focused on M&A and growth. It’s been proven that this has been the right strategy as the Adelicious acquisition has been a success and intergration completed ahead of schedule. There will be further corporate actions to come.

As of today no institutions or major shareholders have sold any shares since the end of the SR.

There are many interested parties out there who didn’t put in a non binding bid and can come back to the table anytime. The board will try to ensure that the next time nothing is leaked so that the process of a sale is not played out in public which is in nobody’s interest.

The root cause of this situation and the points made by lors_9 is AIM. There are many other podcasting companies with values at all time highs - ACAST and PodcastOne. We all know that traders and shorters on AIM will take every opportunity to bring Audioboom down. It’s a fact that the company is valued at just above 1 x revenue compared to ACAST 3x. There’s just not logic. The board have got this absolutely wrong. I’ve always supported management as they’ve done a brilliant job building up a strong business. It seems that a few major shareholders who basically control the company have decided to hold out for a better offer. This means there’s a lengthy time frame and people are getting frustrated and bored. I’m sure H1 will be excellent but that isn’t going to be enough to set a rocket under the share price. I shall continue to hold but patience is being severely tested. I don’t know how much more open the company could have been at the end of the SR but simply saying the offers were not good enough and didn’t represent the best value to shareholders was not sufficient. We need to know what the plan is, and announce this quickly.

Moneyman - They’re just looking for attention and validation. All the same. “ I told you so”. ‘Just look at my previous posts”. Etc. Never a scintilla of conversation on the business of Audioboom.

Says it all really, ARFM. We can just hope that AB will soon be listed elsewhere now that it’s remaining independent. Remaining on AIM is not an option if all long term shareholders are to see a realistic valuation. The traders will muck around for some months again. Good trading figures are not going to be sufficient to get this price back up. Merger or acquisition is needed. Issue is finding the right target and on advantageous terms.

Our posts crossed BigShow. I hope you’re right. I have that feeling that much is still in the air!

Your right lor_9 that arealfundmanager could answer the question of follow-up offer timescale. He was certainly correct in saying that because of previous RNS’s the only option was a sale. As this hasn’t happened due to low offers then surely management are looking at alternatives. So Audioboom remains independent for now which means it can look for an acquisition and or a reverse takeover. The BigShow makes a good point that the release of advisors wasn’t advised. Is it a requirement.

I do agree that matters are far from transparent. However I still back the current management and I would not be in favour of any changes. That’s the last thing the company needs.

Mav, the shares issued are just over 18m as per RNS a few weeks ago;

Audioboom (AIM: BOOM), the leading global podcast company, announces that the issued ordinary share capital of the Company as at the date of this announcement comprises 18,032,988 ordinary shares with one voting right per share ("Ordinary Shares").

Your post was thoughtful and basically correct. Audioboom has been valued at a premium over £5.40 however AIM traders have deigned to price it at 15% below. Sounds totally irrational. The company has announced today that its business plan is working very very successfully with confirmed H1 26 results above forecast and smattering 2025 figures. The Adelicious acquisition has been a brilliant success adding its business to good organic growth of AB. The company is obviously better of remaining independent and I still champion a move to a US where PodcastOne is now priced at 2x revenue. Guess what Audioboom is now 1.3 multiple, and it’s a far better company!

Sorry it’s 5.6% rise. Always use glasses to type and not wine glasses!

ACAST went ape today. Up 14%!

Hi ARFM, picking up on a couple of your points:

- the position of AB in world/USA ranking should warrant a good premium over and above the valuations of other companies in the sector. Not that big media companies throw there money around. However the fundamental point is AB now stands out in the crowd as the go to publisher not only for audio but also the growing video demand

- the retention of consideration is a good point and was evident in the Adelicious acquisition last year by AB. The situation may of course be different as AB is a public company and some shareholders may not be in favour of delayed settlement. However this sort of detail could present as one of the reasons for the lengthy process.

All in all your wise comments lend a calming influence on what has been a lengthy period of time in what could be likened to purgatory for us all.

All your posts have been of the highest quality, ARFM, both in providing information on the workings and process of M&A. Views and facts are always well balanced. I have looked through all your previous posts as a reminder of past comments. I smiled at your put down of Uallmakeitup!

If you’re right in your assumption that it’s a cash deal which is the only process on the table I do have concerns over how any acquirer would be able to justify a significant multiple over the current quoted price, especially to its shareholders. We can’t get too engrossed into guessing games about what an offer may look like but as you say the board would have set a minimum price which could be defined as a serious offer warranting in depth DD and access to the DR.

I can’t believe that the accounts would have any issues whatsoever. I know Stuart and Brad from years ago when they did face to face presentations. They are cautious and diligent officers of the company.

So how long does it take to get to an acceptable price and how many discussions.

The action of the price indicates that the MM are keeping a tight range. There’s been more selling than buying. Dowgate have been a noticeable absence from trading so this must indicate something. As you say maybe larger shareholders have now been made insiders. I know institutions hate to be made so in the long term but now we are approaching the end game.

Thanks again for your thoughts which are very much appreciated.