By mixing Elemental’s software with AWS’s globe-spanning cloud platform, Amazon said it will be working on providing media companies with a mixture of cloud, on premise, hybrid services that aid internet-based video delivery.
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Elemental has deals with multiple broadcasters and service providers, such as the BBC, ESPN Score Center, HBO Go and Comcast.
Andy Jassy, Senior Vice President of Amazon Web Services expressed great excitement in this regard noting that innovation and customer satisfaction are Elemental’s top main priorities much like how they are at Amazon. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year; terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 2006, Elemental provides cloud-based software that lets its customers more easily reformat and stream video from live and on-demand sources onto laptops, tablets, smartphones and other devices.
Barr credited Elemental for pioneering software-based solutions for delivering video content to different types of endpoints. Amazon said in a release that Elemental’s technology is useful as media companies “increasingly move to Internet-based delivery”.
Elemental will continue to operate as its own brand within AWS, ” delivering the full range of solutions required by our customers”, said Elemental CEO and co-founder Sam Blackman in a note on Elemental’s site.
Amazon rarely makes large acquisitions, the most recent being the $970 million purchase a year ago of video-game streaming company Twitch.
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The Information first reported the news, pegging the price at $500 million, though Amazon declined to comment on that number. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster and his team write that the acquisition “pairing plants Amazon squarely in the media production and distribution value chain” and has application for the company as a whole and customers of Amazon Web Services. It raised around $44 million from investors over the years, including firms Voyager Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Steamboat Ventures.
