Apple to Buy Radio App Swell for $30 Million

Apple is close to buying the Pandora-for-talk-radio app Swell, according to multiple sources.

The deal is worth about $30 million, these sources say.

Swell had raised $7.2 million from investors including DFJ, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners. Its iOS app compiled various podcasts and shows and stitched them into personalized streams.

The Swell acquisition comes as part of a string of content apps that Apple has picked up over the last couple of months, including Beats, which had a significant $3 billion price tag; and book recommendation service BookLamp, which was another small-ish buy.

It seems like a pretty clear-cut story: Despite Swell’s simple UI that lended itself to in-car listening, as well as high engagement among fans, the app had trouble finding a lot of users.

As part of the deal, the Swell app is to be shut down this week.

Apple does have its own in-house podcast app, but it is not well-loved, with users rating it 1.5 out of 5 stars in the Apple App Store.

Swell had been beta-testing an Android app, but never released it to the public.

Much of the Swell team is to join Apple. CEO Ram Ramkumar and other members of the Swell team previously sold their image-recognition startup SnapTell to Amazon.

Ramkumar and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

source: Liz Gannes/Recode