Google to buy video compression technology outfit On2
Mountain View presses 'play' on all-stock deal
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Google confirmed today that it plans to buy digital video compression outfit On2 Technologies in an all-stock agreement, valued at $106.5m.
Mountain View said On2 shareholders will be handed 60 cents worth of Google class A common shares for each outstanding share they hold in the company.
Clifton Park, New Jersey-based On2 employs around 60 staff. It started life as the Duck Corporation in 1992.
On2's VP6 codec is licensed by Adobe, for its Flash Player and Flash Lite 3 for mobile phones. Other major customers include AOL, Freescale, Nokia and Sun Microsystems.
"Today video is an essential part of the Web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the Web platform," said Google product management veep Sundar Pichai.
"We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2's team and technology will help us further that goal."
Google, which owns video sharing website YouTube, said the proposed acquisition was expected to close in the final quarter of this year. ®
COMMENTS
@mlo0352
Credit Adobe with some sense. They'll have made sure the licence can't be revoke. The source code may even be in escrow against just the possibility that just happened :-)
Ogg Theora
Just an FYI, On2's the company that released the VP3 video codec under an irrevocable free license (including covering any patents On2 has, including for commercial use), specifically to provide a basis for the Ogg Theora video format. So they are definitely supporters of open source software.
I wonder if Google will open up VP6 (especially if it has any advantages over H.264.) Then it could be used for in-browser video. HTML5 video tag for newer browsers, and flash for older ones (since flash also supports VP6).
On2 contributed most of the code for Ogg Theora
I wonder why Google wants the team that did most of Ogg Theora, which is the video codec for freetards that nearly got written into the latest HTML standard.
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