DivX Acquires AnySource Media

DivX, Inc. a digital media company, today announced it has acquired AnySource Media LLC, creator of a leading Internet Television streaming platform that allows users to directly connect their TV to a wide variety of content and services on the Internet, enabling hundreds of virtual on-demand channels.

"Internet TV will transform the landscape for media distribution and advertising as we know it," stated Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer, DivX, Inc. "The AnySource streaming platform combined with our high-quality device certification program and our deep relationships with both consumer electronics companies and Hollywood studios puts us in an enviable position in this rapidly emerging market. We look forward to bringing these two great teams together to realize our open, consumer-focused vision for digital media as it moves to a connected world."

Based in Malvern, PA, AnySource Media has developed a software solution that can support e-commerce transactions and enable rapid navigation and seamless playback of hundreds of virtual on-demand channels directly via HDTVs, Blu-ray disc players and other consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones. The AnySource Internet Video Navigator(TM) enables online video on a living room TV and easy access to Internet-based videos, music, photos, games and data content at the touch of a button through a standard remote control.

"AnySource is a solid strategic complement to DivX," said Mike Harris, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, AnySource Media, and who has joined the DivX management team reporting to Kevin Hell. "We are very excited to join DivX to redefine the TV viewing experience for millions of consumers, leveraging DivX's technology and vast ecosystem which now includes more than 200 million DivX devices shipped into the market."

Total consideration for the acquisition is $7.5 million, paid in cash at closing, and additional cash payments up to $7.5 million payable over three years upon the achievement of certain technical, and revenue and distribution milestones.

"The acquisition of AnySource's technology platform and the addition of their talented team advance our development schedule by at least one year," said Dan Halvorson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "For the remainder of 2009, the acquisition will increase our headcount and integration costs by approximately $1.3 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, net of taxes."

Sorenson Spark Video Decoder Licensed for Transactional Video Transcoding Solutions

Sorenson Media announced that RipCode, the leader in transactional video transcoding, has licensed the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) to integrate and distribute the Sorenson Spark video decoder in its suite of industry-leading video transcoding solutions. With the addition of Sorenson Spark, RipCode customers will be able to seamlessly transcode and deliver the largest installed base of online video across multiple platforms, including mobile devices, the Web and Internet television.

Sorenson Spark is the industry’s most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination site today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets, semiconductors and server-based transcoding solutions.

An appliance-based, infrastructure solution, RipCode simplifies the complexity of video delivery and enables customers to extend delivery of video content across multiple channels, without requiring specialized handset applications or video players, and without the need to pre-transcode content for each device. Built to address the high-availability needs of today’s new media market, RipCode’s On-Demand and Real-Time Stream Transcoding solutions enable the cross-marketing of content over a variety of channels including mobile video, Internet video and IPTV – for the greatest flexibility in expanding video delivery and increasing revenue opportunities.

“Sorenson Spark is important to our customer base, and particularly for customers who want to take advantage of our on-demand transcode capability – which allows large libraries of legacy content to be made available rapidly and cost effectively to mobile and Web devices,” said Neal Hartsell, vice president of marketing at Ripcode.

“RipCode has established itself as a leader in the video transcoding industry, and our new partnership underscores Sorenson Spark’s unique value of providing access to the complete world of Internet video,” said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. “Whether on the Web, TV or a mobile device, consumers want to view all online video content and cannot do it without the Sorenson Spark codec.”

Chips&Media Licenses Sorenson Spark Video Decoder

Sorenson Media announced that Chips&Media has licensed the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) to include the Sorenson Spark video decoder in Chips&Media's optimized video IP. Chips&Media video technology provides multi-standard video codec support for consumer multimedia devices, including mobile phones.

Sorenson Spark is the industry's most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination site today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets and semiconductors. The kit is designed to provide Sorenson Spark decoding on any platform, including custom silicon.

The optimized Sorenson Spark decoder will be bundled with Chips&Media's video IP that will be designed into Chips&Media’s customer chipsets to deliver high performance video applications on low power consumer multimedia devices. Some of the industry’s largest semiconductor and mobile device manufacturers rely on Chips&Media technology to efficiently playback video content.

"We are thrilled to be able to include the Sorenson Spark decoder in our video technology offering," said Steve Kim, president and CEO at Chips&Media. "Our end customers have been asking us for a hardware optimized implementation of the Sorenson Spark video decoder. We are now positioned to offer this to our customers who will have access to the millions of videos on the Internet that can only be played back using the Sorenson Spark decoder."

"Our Sorenson Spark decoder is the ideal addition to Chips&Media's optimized silicon IP offering," said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. "This partnership is the latest in a series of licensees who see the Sorenson Spark decoder as a necessary part of mobile phones and other multimedia devices. With Chips&Media’s large customer base of semi-conductor manufacturers, even more consumers will have access to the widest and deepest base of online video content."

On2 VP7 Video Codec Selected by 21Vianet

On2 Technologies, a leader in video compression solutions, announced it has licensed its VP7 video codec to 21ViaNet (China), Inc.. Founded in 1996, 21ViaNet is the leading carrier-neutral IDC service provider in China.

21ViaNet was named in Deloitte's '2008 Technology Fast 50 Companies in China' in recognition of its achievements and market success. The company has expansive partnerships with China's major telecom operators including China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as major content providers like CCTV. As part of its ongoing commitment to provide its extensive customer base with value added services, 21ViaNet has launched a new video services business division, using On2 Technologies'VP7 video codec as a key component of its video distribution platform.

The On2 VP7 video codec requires less data for high quality video, thereby reducing overall bandwidth costs without compromise to the end user viewing experience. As proprietary technology to On2, the video codec is patent pool free. This brings additional cost efficiency for publishing and distributing all kinds of content, as the video codec is not subject to MPEG-LA royalties. For more information about On2 VP7 please visit www.on2.com/on2video

The new On2 VP7-enabled video services division enables 21ViaNet to offer more value added options to its customers, assisting content providers and owners, such as TV stations and Telecom operators, to generate more traffic and to broaden revenue streams. 21Vianet is also currently developing another product that deploys On2 VP7 which it hopes will help promote sales of Internet video service enabled TV sets.

On2 Adds Support for JavaFX Video to Flix

Following the launch of Sun's JavaFX 1.0 platform, which introduces On2 Video as the cross platform video codec for JavaFX applications. On2 Technologies, Inc., a leader in video compression solutions, announced that support for JavaFX video has been integrated into its On2 Flix line of encoder products. On2 Flix currently is the only video encoding solution capable of outputting JavaFX video.

Renowned for performance and compatibility, On2 Flix video encoders range from desktop applications for consumers and professionals to server side encoding platforms for enterprise. Accepting the broadest range of video formats, in addition to JavaFX video, On2 Flix encoders also support VP6-E and VP6-S video for Adobe Flash Player 8 and 9, 3GPP-compliant mobile video, and H.264 video for Apple iPhone iPod and offer the most complete solution for creating and publishing web video.

The JavaFX 1.0 is the expressive platform for building rich internet applications (RIA) with immersive media and content, across all the screens of your life. It includes a runtime and a suite of tools that web scripters, technical designers and developers can use to quickly build and deliver the next generation of rich interactive applications for desktop, mobile devices, TV, and other platforms. For more information on the JavaFX family of products visit http://www.javafx.com

"The launch of JavaFX 1.0 is a significant milestone in our multi-year agreement with Sun" says Matt Frost, Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO of On2 Technologies "On2 now brings video capability to the Java platform, the global standard that powers billions of devices from TVs to mobile phones, and our Flix encoding tools provide the Java community with the tools needed for creating and publishing high quality JavaFX video."