Contact: Scott Denne
Telstra reaches for Ooyala in a purchase that values the video company at $360m. The deal is the latest in a string of transactions aimed at profiting from the shift of video from broadcast to broadband. Seven-year-old Ooyala offers broadcasters and service providers the tools and services to distribute, manage and monetize video content.
Ooyala remained independent through an earlier wave of consolidation in this space at the end of the last decade when Comcast bought thePlatform for $90m, Cisco purchased ExtendMedia, and EchoStar paid $45m for Move Networks. Those deals were part of the first iteration of Web video – PC-based, short-form content, with little participation from major broadcasters.
Now that long-form television content is rapidly shifting to the Internet, it’s spurring another round of acquisitions from companies looking to build out their stack of video tools needed by traditional broadcasters, such as content protection and digital rights management. Earlier this year, Kaltura nabbed Tvinci to obtain those capabilities and Ericsson picked up Azuki Systems, following the purchase of Microsoft’s Mediaroom business. In June, Google bought mDialog with the aim of offering ad formats to appeal to broadcast companies – a rationale that mirrors Comcast’s reach for FreeWheel Media.
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