[Update 2/12/08: The deal has been confirmed. The price was $160 million.]
We’ve gotten word that Yahoo will make an acquisition announcement of a video startup today or tomorrow. At first we thought the target might be Metacafe, which was almost acquired by Yahoo just following the Google/YouTube deal in 2006. Shortly after, it made a small acquisition in Jumpcut, a Web-based video editor. But It’s not a video aggregator, we’ve heard, but a platform company. And the price is north of $100 million.
The price point limits the number of candidates. Brightcove is our top guess. If it is Brightcove, the price would have to be well north of $100 million, given that investors have poured $86 million into the company so far. More as this develops.
For an excellent overview of the online video space and its participants, see this post written by Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire and SVP Marketing Adam Berrey.
Update: It is not Brightcove. It is Maven Networks, another Boston-based video startup, three independent sources confirm. And the price is believed to be $150 million. Maven is a video-hosting platform for media sites, including Fox News, CBS Sports, CNet, and Scripps Networks. But Yahoo would probably want it more for its video-ad network, targeting, and insertion technologies. Maven has raised $30 million to date from investors include Accel, General Catalyst, and Prism Ventures.
Brightcove, north of $100million?… Not sure the value is there as a standalone, but could be if integrated with YPN, RMX, BL.
Yahoo is going to spend a lot of time on integrations in 2008.
I Think that this is not a rumor at all , Yahoo is keen to make a change and increase its market potential.
So Go On Yahoo ! Good Luck
I agree with Isaac, Brightcove would be my guess.
Word is that it is Brightcove
Yahoo plummeted hard in Q4 and their reputation is perishing. ANYTHING to keep the headlines positive for a bit will help.
So Yahoo news will expand to include videos - using the output from their partner sites currently on their Yahoo news - and allowing the video to be embedded on external sites.
This makes sense - if in fact this is what will occur.
But when TechCrunch gets leaks like these - what is the benefit of doing it in such a secretive fashion?
Is this a way for Yahoo to build suspense before the weekend
seems many are tracking yahoo actions !!!
If Yahoo acquire Video startup.
Google might got after web 3.0 / Wifi / $12.95 TV & phone plans. This means Microsoft & yahoo will not catch up. The rivals get stronger and stronger. This is means that Google can cut Verizon, cablevision, At&T, Directv, Viacom cable line.
They will make anything bigger than Timewarner. Soon, Google will make Google TV. you can search your own channels faster TV remote.
Microsoft WebTV, Apple TV, Verizon, Cablevision, AT&T, HULU, Viacom… could lose marketshares if Google release something like Google TV.
Goog shares is very big.
Hasn’t Allaire raised around $80 million in VC so far? Yahoo’s offer would have to be north of $100M, and most likely in the 250-300 million dollar range.
Turkish internet entrepreurs strike gold again … well done Hilmi!
Imagine Google team up Sony, NEC & hitachi to make Google TV. YOu can translate all subtitle languages. That would be soo cool.
Many companies got worry. They worry about Google passing tradesecret to Japanese companies. I can’t wait this to happen.
Google please make this dream happen!!!
Guys , I have a silly question . Can anyone solve this Information Overload ?
all of these video providers and TVs are a kind of an overload why are we asking for more !!!
Nowadays one of us doesn’t have time to check all these online networks !
This is a nice acquisition for Yahoo. They’re paying for an established brand with a strong presence in the online video market. I really do not like Maven’s video player, so hopefully they improve the aesthetics of their current platform.
It would have had too be WAY north of $100 million to be Brightcove.
They’ve raised like $60 million.
Gotuit is still a very interesting video company with a very strong patent portfolio. If Yahoo! acquires Maven or Brightcove - this should raise awareness to Gotuit’s value.
My money is on Veoh - its headed up by ex-Yahoo alumni
Why thay ask for more.
Real reason… Stockmarket.
Google stock jump $200 to $600 after purchase Youtube.
Boardcast.com lost.
Yahoo shares plumming.
It’s worthless.
Big companies have buy cheap quality startup.
It’s like buying baseball player.
Has that lawsuit been settled….I wonder how Yahoo will approach that once the dust settles….
Question. I saw on @18…
Does brightcove use Maven’s IP?
Unlikely to be Brightcove - IAC is a major investor…
I bet Maven was pushed into private sale instead of IPO, due to the stock market tanking as of late.
Maven was founded in 2002, so from a VC perspective, they were within the investment exit period.
I think were going to see other technology plays pushed to private sales in the upcoming weeks and months instead of IPO filings due to the surrounding market conditions as post-bubble tech plays reach exit periods for VCs.
Likely announcement, if anything, to come tomorrow given that it’ll get lost in Google earnings news.
They would have been better off buying Move Networks. Flash video still sucks.
@23 - I agree. Flash video is just a fad. Better off investing into some other unestablished technology with low market penetration.
Maven competitor Roo Media, RGRP.ob is trading at .22 and has a market cap of 10mil. according to Yahoo! Finance.
Roo has as many key website partners as Maven.
Also interestingly Maven serves Newscorp’s Fox Business News. NWS (Fox) owns 5% of Roo.
Brightcove and Roo, where will they call home in 2008?
@23 The problem with Yahoo purchasing Move Networks is more of an issue with workflow process and player delivery than it is in actual stream delivery. The Maven and Brightcove players both provide a way to both manage video on a user-account basis, and to also create a custom skin with the player. In order to do this with Move Networks, Yahoo would have to create a whole workflow process around the creation of the custom skinning, since skinning is not provided by Move. It would make very little sense to Yahoo to make such a move, since the companies currently using Move Networks - Discovery Networks, Fox Television, ABC - all have to create their own GUI assets.
As for Flash video being just a fad - it hasn’t fizzled yet. That’s not to say it won’t, but I think that Adobe still has a commitment to FLV. With that said, though, I think that MP4 and H.264 inside of AS3 will become far more powerful, with adaptive bitrates. All that Move provides is breaking the stream into data chucks in order to adapt to new bitrates.
And finally, with the purchase of either Brightcove or Maven, Yahoo is still going to have to play catch-up. Both systems use AS2 code, and to truly begin to leverage the power of Adobe and Flash, they are going to have some serious rearchitecture issues in getting the system to where it needs to be. The CEO of Maven was quoted as saying that what they do is rocket science. They may want to consider updating their space ship, then.
Good move bad move no one knows at this point. Yahoo has tons of cash and for them to build a player and distribution method was just not going to happen. So they had to buy. Maven is a good company with good tech.
Yahoo uses another video overlay technology called Panache - they use them to do overlays. Seems like they are trying every angle here to make sure they are covered.
I think somewhere Marc Cuban is laughing is a** off.
I remember yahoo had a potential revenue loss last year and they better gear up and make up for the loss.
Just to add that the Adobe Media Player, slated for release in 2008, uses maven networks content management solution - so any content provider that uses Adobe Media Player, will use Maven Networks to manage their content.
Understand that we most likely are talking about some of the heavy content providers of the world, and Maven Networks CMS solution also can function as a aggregator to other flash driven video sites - potentially becoming a one shop solution for flash video aggregation.
This could explain some of the 150M USD price tag…
The Maven and Brightcove players both provide a way to both manage video on a user-account basis, and to also create a custom skin with the player.
I would be quite surprised if this happens with the news that Microsoft is now making a strong bid to buy all of Yahoo for $31/share. Sorry Maven shareholders, but I think that this deal got stuck in a bigger swamp.
Microsoft is eager to buy yahoo. Yahoo busy in buying others. What will be the result depends on time.
Did the deal fall through?
RGRP would be the sensible buy. THey have all the same tech as Maven, a syndication network of over 1,000+ websites across the globe & heavy in the USA,Europe & AustraliAsia regions w/recent jumpcut president taking over now have a heavy LIVE TV integration and the mid-easy covered. Spend 8+ years on their tech and have global operations in place to manage most any load. They’d be half the price of Maven given their current trading price it would be a steal!
There is a lot of sniffing around PermissionTV, a Boston based competitor of both Maven and Brightcove. Their technology is excellent and they continue to win clients. More revs than Maven.