Today it was announced that Maven has been acquired by Yahoo!. Although they were a relatively small player in the Internet TV platform category, with significantly less market share than Brightcove, we believe their acquisition is a good validation of the value of the category as a whole.
The major question for publishers is can an online media company with Yahoo!’s footprint effectively provide a white-label, on-demand service to other online media companies? We believe there is an inherent conflict of interest in this. As media companies battle for mindshare and audience online, they’re looking for a platform provider that will give them flexibility and control over how they partner for everything from content to advertising execution. As the largest independent Internet TV platform, we’re in a unique position to continue to provide this to publishers.
The acquisition comes on the heels of what has been pivotal year for Internet TV, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow a strong, independent company in 2008 that can service the Internet video needs of media companies, marketers and a wide range of other organizations publishing and distributing video online.