• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 15, 2019

Spotify paid about $337 million for podcasting companies Gimlet Media and Anchor FM, according to a fresh filing with the SEC.

That represents a big chunk of the $400 million to $500 million that the Swedish streaming giant said it plans to spend on podcasting companies this year.

The world first learned of Spotify’s plans to buy up podcast network and producer Gimlet Media and podcast platform and service provider Anchor earlier this month.

Per the deals, Spotify is expected to run both companies as subsidiaries. No layoffs are expected.

As illustrated by the size of the deals, Spotify sees podcasting as a huge growth opportunity.

Indeed, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek called podcasting “the next phase of growth in audio” in a recent blog post.

“The format is really evolving and while podcasting is still a relatively small business today, I see incredible growth potential for the space and for Spotify in particular,” Ek said.

By next year, annual podcast ad revenue will reach $659 million, according to a forecast from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Along with Spotify, a number of established and emerging players are vying for a piece of that pie. Just this month, a podcasting startup named Himalaya Media raised $100 million to expand its market position.

For its part, Spotify continues to gobble up market share. Late last year, it boasted about 87 million paid subscribers, 191 million total users -- 109 million of whom were ad-supported users.