Adconion Media Group on Tuesday said it has acquired part of online video service provider and YouTube wannabe Joost in a bid to boost its ability to build a broad video and display ad-serving solution.
Adconion, Santa Monica, Calif., is an independent global audience and content network which provides ad agencies and marketers the opportunity create, distribute, and monetize video content for a global audience. The company said it reaches about one-third of the total global Internet population.
New York-based Joost, like services such as YouTube, serves a wide variety of video content to end users.
However, according to Techspot, the company earlier this year got out of the consumer-uploaded video business, and instead focuses on providing an online broadcast platform for broadcasters and video creators.
Joost was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who are also the founders of Skype and Kazaa.
With the new Joost assets, Adconion expects to enhance its position in the online video and content syndication market, including a library of professionally-produced video content available for targeted pre-roll advertisements across 2,000 premium publishers. The company had been serving more than 80 million video streams per day to targeted audiences across 2,000 global Web sites, it said.
Video is a top priority for Adconion, and the Joost assets will make it easier for the company to provide advertisers, content owners, and Web site publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and display ad-serving solution, said Tyler Moebius, Adconion CEO, in a statement.
"This acquisition immediately brings additional scale and content to the Adconion video pre-roll network for clients who are looking for a safe, cost-effective alternative to achieve the maximum value of online video advertising. We'll also continue to operate Joost.com, providing clients with a destination site to showcase and distribute their branded entertainment content," Moebius said.
Friis said in a statement that Joost had been actively exploring strategic options for Joost, and concluded that the sale of certain of its assets to Adconion is in the best interests of Joost.
