Amid speculation that online video syndication and advertising platform Grab Media could be on Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo acquisition list, AIM-listed Internet Media platform Blinkx has moved to acquire the property in an “all cash transaction” with Grab Network Holdings Inc. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, though in a statement Binkx CEO S. Brian Mukherjee tellingly calls the acquisition “modest in size”.
Fitting in with Blinkx’s own mission to connect consumers with advertisers through “professionally generated content” online, founded in 2008, U.S.-based Grab Media helps syndicates video content, helping premium video producers find an audience on an array of smaller network sites, and in turn align that content to relevant advertisers. It claims an audience reach of over 35 million viewers, and stresses the quality not quantity of that viewer reach, in terms of its monetization.
That the terms of the deal are implied to be modest, it doesn’t look like a home run for Grab Media’s backers. According to CrunchBase, the company has raised $34.5m in from VCs including Longworth Venture Partners, SoftBank Capital, and Court Square Ventures. It was known to be on the hunt for a sale after it hired investment bank Mesa Global to look for potential buyers.
Blinkx saus that the specific assets acquired in the transaction will enable the company to add incremental audience and augment its relationships with advertisers, publishers and content providers. However, it also says that the purchase will not have a material impact on its revenue or cost base in the near term.
Along with acquiring the platform — technology and customer relationships — Blinkx says it plans to hire the existing Grab Media team, described by Mukherjee as “a talented, multi-faceted group with extensive experience and relationships in online video content syndication and advertising”.
“This transaction, while modest in size, enables us to meet growing consumer demand for online video, and provides us with an established platform to distribute and monetize these interactions across desktops, tablets, smartphones and connected TVs,” he says in a statement.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/1TRev7exwqc/
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