Vox Media acquires podcasting company co-founded by Preet Bharara

Vox Media announced that it has acquired Cafe Studios, the podcasting company co-founded by Preet Bharara.

Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, founded Cafe Studios with his brother, Vinit Bharara. Preet Bharara will stay on as a host and creative director of Cafe while Vinit Bharara will not have a role in Vox Media, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Vox Media said that Cafe’s podcasts explore “how law and policy intersect with politics, news, business, history, and technology.” The company currently produces eight podcasts, according to the Cafe website. The Vox Media Podcast Network, by comparison, already hosts 200-plus podcasts.

Cafe will operate as a division inside Vox Media, according to the announcement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  

Vox Media did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill. Cafe Studios could not be reached for comment.

The deal is the latest of several for Vox Media. The company also recently acquired film, television, audio, and production studio Epic, commenting platform Coral, and in September of 2019 bought New York Magazine.

The first quarter of 2021 has been a busy one for media mergers and acquisitions.

On Thursday, News Corp announced it would be issuing $1 billion worth of bonds to potentially fund, in part, more acquisitions. The announcement followed a March 29 announcement that News Corp would purchase Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books and the March 25 announcement it would buy Investor’s Business Daily.

In April, it was reported that media conglomerate Meredith could sell its 17 local television stations. In March, news emerged of a possible merger between Axios and sports media company The Athletic.

Uncertainty arose over Alden Global Capital’s already accepted bid for Tribune Publishing, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, after news broke that two new suitors — a hotel owner and a Swiss billionaire — were also attempting to buy the company.

Shortly after the year started, BuzzFeed finished its deal to purchase HuffPost. Not long after, it laid off staffers in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.