Google Buys Video Compression Company, On2
Google has announced that it will purchase video compression company On2 for a cool $106 million.
Announced early today and expected to close later this year, the deal will see Google acquire On2, a company responsible for developing advanced video compression technologies, and whose customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, and Move Networks.
Neither company has expanded on the details of the deal. Specifically, no one is saying what Google plans to do with the technology but word is we'll find out more once the deal is all stitched up.
Outside of the official press release, Google's Jeremy Doig and Mike Jazayeri said in a blog post that the deal is still subject to approval by On2's stockholders as well as regulatory authorities, including the SEC, but the deal is expected to close in Q4. Doig and Jazayeri went on to say that while they couldn't discuss future plans for the technology, Google recognizes the importance of video on the web and is committed to innovation when it comes to the quality of said video. Naturally, this means most folks are thinking it all has something to do with YouTube.
Check out the full release here or the blog post here.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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deltatux Just hopefully Google would opensource VP8 to help Xiph for OGG since OGG is based on VP3.Reply -
eldesconocido It's the end of the world as we know it!!!.... It is written on the revelations!!! XDReply -
Honis This is a stretch, but wouldn't be cool if Chrome OS got native video decoding support? Imagine a 1080p video being decoded on the OS level!Reply -
jeraldjunkmail HonisThis is a stretch, but wouldn't be cool if Chrome OS got native video decoding support? Imagine a 1080p video being decoded on the OS level! Most likely answer, considering the limited processing power of netbooks. Adding compression for video into the OS and linking it to youtube would be the most likely scenario...Reply -
p05esto Quick, go buy ONT stock! Dang, too bad no one tells me these things BEFORE the news hits. Damn it would be nice to have important friends instead of these stoners sitting next to me...Reply -
nachowarrior i'll draw out my prediction for you as I seem to be better at predicting tech futures better than most PAID 'industry anylists'.Reply
google owns youtube
youtube=largest online video site
youtube also depends on flash
youtube buys own video compression
youtube implements video compression they own
youtube= now profitable or closer to it.
does that sound okay? Well if it happens just let me know.
sounds good to me seeing as how flash video's tend to be processor heavy and need some reworking to run better on pocket sized pc's/phones.
This also seems like the right time to start the transition because google's android has quite a few hot devices coming out in q3 this year to q2 of next year, to be able to include a high performance streaming video on these pocket sized devices would surely put them on top for sales and promote a massive wave of community developed software for andriod. :-p
but what the hell do i know? I'm only psychic