The assets and final fate of the once-promising broadband video player are now in the hands of a UK-based online ad company

Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor

November 24, 2009

2 Min Read
Joost Sells Off Scraps

If you still had Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) in the who-will-buy-Joost pool, we're sorry to inform you that you weren't even close.

The final fate of Joost is now in the hands of Adconion Media Group, which has acquired the assets of the once-promising online video player. (See Adconion Buys Joost Assets.)

London-based Adconian didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal. Joost raised more than $45 million since its founding in 2006, counting backers such as Sequoia Capital , CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), and Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA).

For months, officials have been trying to save or sell Joost, according to Janus Friis, a founder.

The purchase caps off a turbulent time for Joost and its founders. The company dropped CEO Mike Volpi, formerly of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), and then Joost's founders pulled him into the legal spat over the sale of Skype ownership by eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY). (See Volpi Out at Joost, Still Advising Ooyala and Joost, Joltid Sue Volpi.)

Industry sources confirmed that Time Warner Cable gave Joost a cursory glance earlier this year as the MSO was pursuing the technical underpinnings of its own online video strategy, but obviously, TWC passed. (See Is Joost on the Block?) TWC did manage to hire one of Joost's brains, Jason Gaedtke, who joined the MSO this fall as a group vice president. (See Gaedtke Jumps From Joost, Joins TW Cable .)

The sale to Adconian comes about five months after Joost threw a Hail Mary, laying off nearly all employees and trying its hand as a white-label video platform. Joost had also switched technical gears, dumping its peer-to-peer approach in favor of being an in-browser, Flash-based video service. (See Joost Reorgs to Focus on Video Platform.)

Adconion will pick up Joost's white label video management strategy, particularly in the area of online video advertising, using Joost.com to showcase clients' "branded entertainment content." Joost's original plan to be a destination for premium content looks all but dead.

Adconion says its content network reaches about 300 million unique users per month and has been serving more than 80 million video streams per day across about 2,000 Websites.

Last week, the company signed its first long-term licensing partnership, an exclusive deal to handle display and video ad-serving systems for Swiss firm Goldbach Media Group.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News

About the Author(s)

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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