Storytel AB (publ) (“Storytel”), Northern Europe’s leading audiobook and e-book streaming service, is acquiring an 80 percent majority interest in Earselect AB, a Nordic production company offering a dynamic, flexible and scalable cloud based platform specialised in remote audiobook production.
With Storytel AB as new majority owner, Earselect’s efficient technology for both traditional production and a remote workflow, will support Storytel’s production line, and also continue to provide high quality and cost-efficient productions to external publishers with full business integrity as previously.
“I’m excited and happy to welcome Earselect to our Storytel Production group. With our combined skills, tech-capabilities and excellent staff, we are set to take the next step, adding both new qualities and even higher effectiveness to Storytel’s dedicated audiobook production operations, to meet the accelerating global demand for audiobooks. This will surely benefit Earselect, Storytel, all publishers and – most of all – the audiobook listeners”, says Robert Holmström, Head of Global Production at Storytel.
“Every year Storytel produces tens of thousands of audiobook hours for 20 markets in a wide range of genres and 25+ languages. Earselect’s unique capabilities and cutting edge technology will give us even more scale, speed and cost-efficiency, as well as smoother production processes, which will match the increasing global interest in quality audiobooks, Storytel’s aggressive expansion strategy and our trajectory to profitable growth”, says Robert Holmström.
Earselect was founded in 2017 by the company’s CEO, Swedish pioneer Rickard Källqwist, who started up his first operations for audiobook production in 2005. Today, Earselect is a household name in the Swedish and Norwegian audiobook industry with many larger publishers among its clients and over 40 production units allocated within the Swedish and Norwegian markets.
“I am confident that we have found a perfect owner for Earselect. Storytel’s strength, scale and capability to continuously challenge, sharpen and develop the platform will secure and amplify our position at the forefront of audiobook production”, says Rickard Källqwist, CEO of Earselect.
The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price which will not have a substantial impact on the Storytel Group’s finances. The purchase price will be paid partly in cash and partly through the issuance of shares in Storytel AB (publ). The closing is expected to take place on 19 August 2020.
FNCA Sweden AB is the company’s certified adviser. FNCA can be reached at info@fnca.se or +46 8 528 00 399.
For more information, please contact:
Dan Panas, Head of Communications, Storytel AB
Tel: +46 70 186 52 90
Email: dan.panas@storytel.com
About Storytel
Storytel is Northern Europe’s leading audiobook and e-book streaming service and offers unlimited listening and reading of more than 500 000 titles on a global scale. Our vision is to make the world a more empathetic place with great stories to be shared and enjoyed by anyone, anywhere and anytime. Storytel is a digital platform provider as well as a comprehensive publishing group. The streaming business area offers subscriptions for audiobooks and e-books under the Storytel and Mofibo brands. Storytel’s publishing business area is carried out through the publishing houses Norstedts, Massolit, StorySide, Printz Publishing, People’s Press, Rabén & Sjögren, B.Wahlströms, Gummerus Kustannus and Norstedts Kartor. Ztory – a subscribed digital read-all-you-can streaming service for newspapers and magazines, is part of Storytel since January 2019. Storytel operates in 20 markets around the globe and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.