What: AOL has bought Content Syndicator Vidible for approximately US $50 million to strenghthening its online video strategy.
Why it matters: Vidible, a marketplace for video creators to sell content, allows AOL to take a position in the buying and selling of the actual video content instead of just serving and selling online video advertising.
Expanding on its strength in the online video space, AOL has now bought San Francisco start-up Vidible. Vidible owns technology that simplifies the process of syndicating online video.
AOL is said to have paid around US $50 million for Vidible, which had raised less than us $5 million in the last two years. Of that amount, most came through a US $3.5 million round led by New York City based venture capital firm Greycroft Partners in 2013.
The purchase adds to previous AOL acqusitions that acquired companies such as Adapt.tv in 2013, as well as Convertro and 5Min in 2010. These companies helped AOL to increase its’ presence in the online video sector. The Adapt.tv deal gave the AOL a platform to get into the market for automated video ads.
AOL is the third most-visited destination domestically for online videos right behind Facebook and just ahead of Yahoo, according to Comscore.All major digital media players (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and AOL) have been buying up video-related companies in the last year with the aim of challenging Google/YouTube for the No. 1 spot (or mantaining that spot in Google’s case).
Vidible helps people buy and sell video content across multiple platforms and provides analytics to content producers.The company deals with 150 publishers, and generates more than two billion video views a month.