At the beginning of last year, Yahoo made a fairly large acquisition with the purchase of online video distribution and advertising platform provider Maven Networks. Under the terms of the agreement, which we reported as a rumor the same day the papers were signed, the company acquired the startup for approximately $160 million. At the time, the press release touted the acquisition to lead to an expansion of the “state-of-the-art consumer video and advertising experiences on Yahoo.com and Yahoo’s network of leading premium video publishers across the web”.
Now we’ve learned Yahoo is going to kill Maven Networks instead, the most recent in a long series of deadpooling of products and services by the Sunnyvale Internet behemoth. A tipster, who works for a large media company, tells us that he has been a Maven customer for years and was informed last week that Yahoo will cease all development on the platform and will no longer be supporting it in 2010.
We’ve confirmed with another source that Yahoo has effectively decided to shelve Maven, firing most of its employees in a move packaged as a restructuring and has already notified customers that the product will no longer be supported as of next year. Furthermore, the source tells us that the Maven technology has never even been used for Yahoo’s own video properties, underscoring why the quote I lifted from the press release in the first paragraph of this post sounds so void today.
Update: we received a statement from Yahoo about this:
“Since acquiring Maven Networks in 2008, Maven has played an important role in our video strategy, providing essential talent and core technology that has helped Yahoo! to enhance its consumer and advertising offerings. Maven technology is used in the Yahoo video player, as well as in the Yahoo Video Advertising Platform that is being used to serve both on- and off- network advertising for Yahoo! partners.
While video initiatives remain a priority for Yahoo!, both for its consumer and advertising experiences, we are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others. After careful consideration, Yahoo! is planning to wind down its Maven Networks customer base. This decision will allow us to focus our resources on the continued improvement of our core video offerings, such as enhancing the consumer video experience on Yahoo!. Since Q4 2008, we have closed or announced our intention to close, nearly twenty Yahoo! services– such as Yahoo! 360, GeoCities, My Web and Yahoo! Briefcase. We continue to evaluate our portfolio of products and services on a regular basis, and plan to share details of further changes with people who use our products in the months ahead.”
Yahoo also said that the rumor about the Maven team being mostly laid off is inaccurate.
There’s always the possibility that the platform will eventually live on under different ownership of course, but rest assured that competitors like Brightcove, Ooyala and KIT Digital are currently celebrating over the news.
This is the third video property Yahoo has killed off in less than 8 months, after shutting both Y!Live, a live video streaming service, and Jumpcut, an online video editing tool. Remarkably, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz recently declared on stage at a conference that the company is actually still interested in acquiring startups in the business of digital video technology.
One month and the shuttering of a $160 million video technology acquisition later, it’s close to comical reading those words again. Then again, Yahoo’s prospects and financials at the time the acquisition was made sure looked a whole lot better than they do today, so maybe it’s just too easy to judge the move in hindsight.
Either way, Maven Networks is now a member of the deadpool club, although there’s always the possibility of Yahoo selling off Maven to someone who wants to revive it.
another serious failure for Yahoo. They just cannot seem to win anymore. they really need to sell the company or time will be their enemy.
Does anyone feel like Yahoo is heading the way of the newspapers?
Yahoo’s only asset at this point is that it is a center where people habitually turn for content – real estate in virtual Time Square. That is a valuable asset, but as internet users become more accustomed to using social media (such as blogs and twitter) as sources for content, Yahoo’s real estate will continue to become less valuable.
I don’t understand why they didn’t merge with Microsoft (nor do I understand why Microsoft wanted them).
Why is this a failure? If they’re not going to try and find a buyer, they have to make the tough decisions and cut the fat. Obviously the cost outweighed the benefits of keeping up the service.
Thats true yahoo is destroying itself.
they bought maven right after they said no to microsoft for MS acquiring yahoo.
Now we know it was a bluff.
Actually, they supposedly closed the deal a day before Microsoft (publicly) announced its offer.
Typcial for Yahoo! What else do you expect from them.
What did Yahoo accomplish out of this?
shutting maven saves them money. makes complete sense.
Why do they buy Maven in the first place and then decide to not go along with even building more of the app out?
This is what gets me so pissed about big companies that buy little services and then decides they don;t need them after all.
A waste of an Acquisition and a waste of time.
Maybe the previous regime was clueless. If the Maven business doesn’t make sense, why pour more money down the toilet? Such is the word of Sanjay.
Your word smells.
I wonder what the firesale value of the platform codebase will be? Are there any big known sites powered by Maven?
Speaking of KIT digital… they signed partnership with Akamai today. Sent into your news when it broke my evening (US morning).
It’s called prioritizing, not wimping out. Look for more moves to make smarter investments, not just any.
You know how the Deadpool always has a funny/ironic headline when a company goes belly-up? How about for this one…
“Quoth the Maven; Nevermore!”
Did they also fire all executives acquired with Maven?
no. not at all. early on, several were promoted into new roles within yahoo…for example, bob hammond took over all of video syndication platforms (broadcast.com, etc)…we pulled him into vibrant early this year; he’s awesome!
Actually they did fire almost all the project managers, solution architects and support engineers. Many people were laid off in december 2008.
When they bought Jumpcut they repurposed the team across Yahoo Video and even Flickr.
You have to wonder how much of the the technology and team they are using to accelerate Yahoo Video.
Also, a serious and unmentioned alternative for Maven customers is Viddler Business Services: http://b2b.viddler.com/
I just cant imagine that they’ve been so stupid to spent 160M on a start up! But congratulations to the founders for managing to get this huge amount of money for a bunch of rubbish.
Historically Yahoo acquisitions (Flickr, Delicious, etc.) have paid out over three years. If the same held true for Maven and the execs/founders/staff are no longer around, then I’m not sure they received the windfall. Sad, really.
Please be rest assured that the founders did just fine and walked away smelling like roses.
the founders and execs had forward-vesting clauses. the ones that got released immediately after the acquisition were happiest.
that’s not totally true, for example AOL has paid out many stocks upon closure of past deals….it varies…
Another fine mess Jerry got my company into. Spend boatloads of money on something, never use it, and layoff thousands of people in other parts of the company because we don’t have enough money to pay them.
Ever wonder how how Jerry managed to stay on as CEO, Chief Yahoo and a board member with such an utterly miserable record of achievement?
Yahoo! investment strategy:
“Ok Jerry, I’ll spin the bottle and where ever it stops, you either have to kiss, diss or acquire, Ready?”
acquisitions should be getting cheaper now
everything yahoo touches turns to shit… can anyone name one successful acquisition that actually benefited yahoo shareholders?
Flickr
Damn bargain for $35m.
Another Yahoo venture bites the dust! They are taking more losses recently than the Washington Nationals.
Not entirely a waste.
Yahoo is not in the enterprise SaaS business, for the most part. But Maven had some interesting IP in the form of their video advertising controls that Yahoo will roll into their own ad serving platform.
An expensive feature, surely. But it’s unlikely that Yahoo ever had any intention of continuing the Maven business as it existed for very long.
the -IP- never existed. the engineers never got the technology to work and Y! was too embarrassed to say anything once they found out. the technology was pure vaporware and the maven engineers did a good song and dance to pretend that the ad technology actually worked in real world environments.
the -IP- never existed. the engineers never got the technology to work and Y! was too embarrassed to say anything once they found out. the technology was pure vaporware and the maven engineers did a good song and dance to pretend that the ad technology actually worked in real world environments.
So many deaths this week! Honestly, I could care less about this one.
Shameless pitch… if you’re looking to move from Maven to one of the competing services, get in touch. We’ve helped some major clients evaluate and deploy Video/Digital Asset Management system and can help you find the best fit.
Thanks,
Jaafer
Delve Networks has announced the Maven Rescue Program. We will waive transcoding and migration fees for existing Maven customers who are looking for a new video platform.
http://blog.del...aven-customers/
Alex Castro
CEO
Delve Networks, Inc.
http://www.delvenetworks.com
Yahoo acquired Flickr for $35 million.
I’m sure that acquisition paid for itself within an year. Competing Photobucket was acquired for $300 million, despite the face that Flickr has emerged as the leader when it comes to online image sharing
“Does anyone feel like Yahoo is heading the way of the newspapers?”
Funny because the newspaper I work for joined Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium just last year with a promise of awesome video players from Maven. And after what seems like forever, the Maven player just got integrated to our sites within the past 6 months. Everyone rejoiced. Now everyone weeps.
Is Yahoo heading the way of the newspaper? I think some newspapers thought Yahoo was an answer/savior – whoops.
Kaltura is offering a great switch-over program for Maven customers – including 3 months of service and 12 GB hosting and streaming FREE.
We have a unique open source online video platform that allows publishers to get more, pay less and hit the market sooner.
Check it out at: http://corp.kaltura.com/maven
Yahoo is very claver.This is not a justify way to do.
I’m not sure that “Brightcove, Ooyala and KIT Digital are currently celebrating over the news.” If one of the worlds largest sites can’t create value out of this product then what are the chances that someone else can create value from Brightcove and the others.
Brightcove is doing just fine, thanks.
http://www.busi...positive-2009-6
We’ve had some great conversations with stranded Maven customers, and expect that to accelerate over the rest of the year.
The fact that the world’s largest portal, Yahoo, could not monetize a $160M video technology acquisition kills the value of Brightcove.
Brightcove’s tech is no better than Maven’s, they’ve raised close to $100 million in venture funding, and their VCs would be just happy to unload it for anything that gets some of their money back.
Bottom line: the “white-label video platforms” space is now over funded, commoditized, and too small a market to justify any exits near what Maven got.
I feel bad for Brightcove employees with their worthless stock options… all that promise and work for nothing.
Yahoo´s management is darn good at blatant destruction of shareholder value. Kudos for throwing $160 million out of the window between Jan. 2008 and now.