Build It or Buy It?

I'm curious about SPOT$ deal to acquire Gimlet Media.

Gimlet, whose early days are well-documented by founder Alex Blumberg in the aptly named podcast, StartUp, is succeeding in the insanely challenging work of building processes to produce creative excellence. This is akin to capturing lightening in a bottle, and then doing it again, and again, and again. They've also created an engine to generate IP that can be incubated relatively inexpensively in audio and then launched into other mediums (TV/movies/etc) and open additional revenue streams.

SPOT bought a hot startup, led by visionary - and most importantly, experienced - founders that will produce audio content that they can own, and not have to pay music labels to license, which will make their platform stickier. Seems like a no-brainer.

But did SPOT have to buy Gimlet? When NFLX entered original content for similar strategic reasons they paid to produce and own shows like "OITNB" without buying Lionsgate, the company that produced it and other great series. Plus, as a low barrier to entry contributes to increased competition in audio, couldn't SPOT leverage their distribution power to drive lucrative production deals rather than having to own audio producers outright?

Hoping one of my M&A friends could shed some light...