Adconion acquires assets of online video site Joost
Adconion Media Group announced Tuesday it has acquired the assets of Joost, an online video portal from the founders of Skype that failed to live up to its pre-launch buzz.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – Adconion Media Group announced Tuesday it has acquired the assets of Joost, an online video portal from the founders of Skype that failed to live up to its pre-launch buzz.
Terms of Adconion's purchase of "certain assets" of the privately-held Joost were not disclosed. Digital media website PaidContent.org said about a dozen of Joost's remaining 20 employees will join Adconion.
Joost was launched with great fanfare in January 2007 but it never really caught on with the public and lagged behind YouTube, Hulu, DailyMotion, Veoh and other sites in the crowded online video market.
In June of this year, Joost announced a restructuring and said it would focus on providing online video platforms for media companies, cable and satellite providers, broadcasters and video aggregators and distributors.
Tyler Moebius, chief executive of Adconion Media Group, said Adconion plans to "pursue this strategy" but would also keep Joost.com open as a "destination site to showcase and distribute" entertainment content.
"Video is a top priority for our company," he said in a statement. "Through the acquisition of the Joost assets we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution."
Joost was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the Scandanavian creators of Skype, the popular Internet telephony service which allows users to make free calls over the Web.
Friis, in a statement Tuesday, said: "Over the past few months we have been actively exploring strategic options for Joost, and have concluded that the sale of certain of its assets to Adconion is in the best interests of Joost.
"Adconion has a strong technological platform and a compelling business model, and we believe that both businesses will benefit as a result of this acquisition," he said.
Adconion, through Adconion.TV, offers video and television commercials and the company said the acquisition of Joost will allow it to add to its library of content available for pre-roll advertisements.
Both Adconion and Joost have received funding from London-based venture capital firm Index Ventures and former Joost chief executive Mike Volpi is an Index partner.
