Rumble SPAC plummets 19% after Joe Rogan's loyalty to Spotify dashes hope for $100 million podcast deal
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- CF Acquisition plunged as much as 19% on Wednesday after Joe Rogan expressed his loyalty to Spotify.
- Rumble, a video-sharing platform that plans to merge with the CF Acquisition SPAC, offered Rogan a $100 million podcast deal.
- Rogan has come under fire in recent weeks for spreading COVID misinformation in his podcast.
CF Acquisition, a SPAC that plans to merge with video-sharing platform Rumble, plummeted as much as 19% on Wednesday after Joe Rogan expressed his loyalty to Spotify, which houses his wildly-popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
"Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably, let's see what happens," Rogan reportedly said Tuesday night during a Q&A session during a standup set.
Rumble had offered Rogan a $100 million four-year podcast deal on Monday in an attempt to poach the podcast host from Spotify amid a flurry of controversial developments. The offer sent shares of the Rumble SPAC surging as much as 43% in Monday's trading session.
Rogan originally moved his entire podcast library to Spotify in 2020, in a deal that was reportedly worth more than $100 million. But recent podcasts from Rogan that spread COVID-19 misinformation led to a handful of artists boycotting the platform and pulling their music from it, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.
The outcry against Rogan intensified over the weekend after a video compilation of Rogan using the N-word in older podcast episodes circulated across social media.
But Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has stood behind Rogan and and said the company has no intention of removing him from the platform, according to a staff memo sent to Spotify employees on Sunday.
"I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer," Ek said.
Spotify removed more than 70 Joe Rogan episodes from its platform last week due to his use of racial slurs. The streaming service also added content warnings to some of his episodes.
The level of commitment from Rogan and Ek means Rumble likely has little chance in luring the podcast host onto its still nascent video-sharing platform.
"How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years?" Rumble CEO Chris Pvalovski asked Rogan in a letter on Monday, adding "Yes, this is totally legit."
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