$15 Million For VideoEgg

San Francisco-based VideoEgg has raised $15 million in additional funding in a Series D round from existing investors WPP, Maveron, and August Capital, and led by Focus Ventures.
The video distribution and advertising company in April said it had raised an undisclosed amount from WPP. That was on top of a $12 million round raised last September from Maveron, August Capital, and First Round Partners, and nearly $5 million from the latter two firms nine months before that — which means that VideoEgg, since it was founded in 2005, has raised more than $32 million.

Thomson Acquires Distributor

Thomson SA has acquired SyncCast Corp., a wholesale distributor of online movies, music and other entertainment, as part of an effort to boost its own digital-services businesses. The price wasn't disclosed.
Through its Technicolor services division, Thomson is trying to win more business from studios and distribution companies as they increasingly move toward digitization of key processes such as creating masters and delivery.
Thomson, of France, has been building an end-to-end system to cut the time and steps required to prepare movies, television shows and other content for distribution. Using the company's new arrangement, preparing a movie for TV, for example -- including changing proportions to fit a TV screen, adjusting the resolution, and making the appropriate number of copies -- might take 25 hours, compared with 100 hours without the integrated digital processes it has put in place.
The new system, which officially begins today, "allows studios to distribute their content faster," says Chris Carey, chief technology officer at Technicolor. Acquiring SyncCast, Anaheim, Calif., which delivers content on behalf of online retailers such as Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live Video Marketplace, will help Technicolor bolster its offerings in consumer-targeted businesses.

Ad-Supported Music Service SpiralFrog’s Financials: Losses; Financing Needed; Plans

Ad-supported online music service SpiralFrog, one of 2006’s candidate’s for most-hyped new product, and still half-vaporware (it has launched a closed beta), has filed its detailed financial with SEC.

On the financial side, the company has already shelled millions to license materials from Universal Music Group, according insider reports. In the filing, the company warned that buy-in from other majors is hardly guaranteed. "In the event that we are unable to enter into agreements with most of the other major and independent record labels, it is unlikely that we will be able to attract and keep users to our site," the company stated. SpiralFrog did not mention heavy, upfront licensing costs frequently demanded by majors, though financial aspects remain daunting.

In the filing, the company disclosed losses of near $12 million over the two and one-half years, as well as significant costs ahead. "We anticipate that we will require up to approximately $18 million to fund our continued operations for the next twelve months," the group disclosed.

SEC Filing

ProSiebenSat Buys Remaining Stake In German Video Sharing Site MyVideo For $26 Million

ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Germany’s largest commercial TV broadcaster, has bought 70 percent of MyVideo.de, a German video sharing site that it already had a 30 percent stake in, thereby buying out the site completely. The 70 percent stake cost the company about $26 million...this follows the initial investment it did last year.

Video Funding: Dailymotion Gets $34M

PARIS -- Dailymotion SA has secured $34 million in venture-capital funding that will allow the French start-up to expand its video-sharing Web site as it competes against larger rival YouTube, owned by Google Inc.
The company's new funds come from venture-capital firms Advent Venture Partners LLP of London and AGF Private Equity of Paris, a division of Allianz AG. Dailymotion already had raised about $9.5 million in October from venture firms Atlas Venture and Paris-based Partech International.

In April, Dailymotion had 4.7 million unique video streamers in the U.S., while Metacafe had 3.7 million. By contrast, Google sites (including YouTube) had 131.9 million unique video streamers in May.

Bi-Weekly wrap up, 16-31 August

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Bolt is dead

Video sharing site Bolt has filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations.

Bolt.com was sued by Universal Music in October 2006 and owes Universal $10 million from that suit; the funds from the GoFish acquisition were to have been used to settle the $10 million with Universal.

Bi-Weekly wrap up, 1-15 August

* Veoh Seeks Court Protection From Universal Music Copyright Suits
San Diego - Video-sharing site Veoh Networks announced on Thursday that it has filed a pre-emptive legal action against Universal Music Group, asking a judge to declare that its service does not violate copyrights.
* NBCU/News Corp. Web Video Venture Gets $100 Million From Equity Firm
San Francisco - The online video distribution joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal ("New Site," for now) has received a $100 million investment from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, in exchange for a 10% stake, The New York Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the deal.
* File-Sharing Firm Lime Wire Debuts Digital Music Store
New York - Lime Wire, the company that distributes the LimeWire peer-to-peer file-sharing application, has announced plans to open a digital music store.
* Video Transcoding Firm RipCode Raises $10.5 Million
Dallas - RipCode, a developer of video transcoding technology, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $10.5 million in its second round of financing, led by ATA Ventures.
* SpiralFrog Debuts Beta of Ad-Supported, Free Music Download Service
New York - SpiralFrog, an ad-supported free music download service, has quietly launched an invite-only beta test of its service, CNET News.com reported.
* German Prosecutors Stop Identifying File Sharers on Behalf of RIAA
Offenburg, Germany - The Local Court (AG) in Offenburg has prohibited a local public prosecutor's office from obtaining the personal data from an ISP that match the IP addresses of alleged P2P network users citing citing "obvious disproportionateness”.
* Japanese Firms Demand YouTube Remove Copyrighted Videos
Tokyo - After a second meeting with executives in Tokyo with YouTube and Google this week, a group of Japanese rights holders again demanded that their copyrighted material be removed from YouTube, the Associated Press reported.
* HandHeld Entertainment Acquires eBaum's World for $17.5 Million
San Francisco - HandHeld Entertainment, a maker of portable media players and operator of entertainment websites, announced on Thursday that it will acquire eBaum's World, an entertainment site that offers user-generated videos, games, jokes, photos and other content, for $17.5 million. The site generated $5.2 million in revenue and $1.6 in net income before taxes in 2006, and has an average of 10 million unique visitors per month. HandHeld had already bought another video site, Putfile.
* Video-Sharing Site GoFish Terminates Acquisition of Bolt Media (details in the previous post)
New York, N.Y. - GoFish, a San Francisco-based video sharing site, on Thursday called off its planned $30 million acquisition of New York-based Bolt Media, after Bolt was unable to finalize a settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit.
* EMI Shareholders Accept $4.8 Billion Buyout Offer from Terra Firma
London - Major record label EMI Group announced that its shareholders have approved a $4.8 billion buyout offer from private equity group Terra Firma.
* Apple's Wozniak Among Backers of Internet Video Start-up Hotswap
New York - Hotswap.com, an Internet video start-up founded by three former University of California grad students, has raised an undisclosed sum of funding from backers including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Clear Channel co-founder Red McCombs, Reuters reported.

GoFish will not acquire Bolt - copyright infringements too risky

On August 1, 2007, GoFish Corporation (“GoFish”) terminated the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of February 11, 2007, as amended, by and among GoFish, BM Acquisition Corp. Inc., Bolt, Inc. and John Davis.

As previously disclosed, under the Merger Agreement, a condition to the obligation of GoFish and the Merger Subsidiary to consummate the merger was that Bolt shall have entered into a definitive settlement of the pending copyright infringement lawsuit filed by UMG Recordings, Inc. and definitive settlement agreements covering substantially comparable potential claims, if any, by Sony, BMG Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Recorded Music and the major publishers that provide for initial cash payments not exceeding an aggregate of $1,000,000 and for additional cash payments to be made no sooner than July 1, 2008 not exceeding an aggregate of $3,000,000 and 2.5 million shares of GoFish common stock, exclusive of any advertising credits or other in kind consideration. The foregoing condition had not been satisfied on or prior to the Termination Date under the Merger Agreement and, as a result, GoFish elected to terminate the Merger Agreement. No termination or other fee was incurred as a result of such termination.

Veoh Raises $26M in Series C Funding

Veoh has raised another $26 million in Series C funding, granting the video sharing company more money raised than any other video-sharing site. The round was led by Goldman Sachs, and Pete Perrone has joined Veoh’s board. Also included in this latest round are existing shareholders Spark Capital and Shelter Capital Partners.

While Veoh doesn’t gain as much traffic as MetaCafe, YouTube or DailyMotion, it still remains the company that has gained the most in venture capital. Veoh is a good application and has had a long standing when it comes to the surge of video-sharing sites. In 2005, Veoh raised $2.75 million in a Series A round, and got an additional $12.5 million in its second round of funding last year.

Unlike its larger counterpart YouTube, Veoh has dealt with the problem of finding copyrighted content on the site, which no doubt fares well when Veoh seeks out large amounts of funding. With the ante raised, other video-sharing sites may be able to raise more funding for their own services as well.

CBS Acquires Social Music Network Last.fm for $280 Million

CBS Corporation announced on Wednesday that it has acquired U.K.-based social music network Last.fm, for $280 million in cash.

Last.fm, which was founded in 2002 and now counts more than 15 million users in over 200 countries, monitors what songs a user is listening to in iTunes or other applications, and then automatically creates a personalized streaming radio station based on recommendations from fellow users with similar tastes.

Sony/ATV Acquires Viacom's Famous Music for $370 Million

Sony/ATV Music Publishing announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Viacom's music publishing arm, Famous Music, for about $370 million.

Video search company, Blinkx, blows bubble with IPO

Blinkx the San Francisco video search engine, has taken us into new bubble territory, going public on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and being valued at $355 million.
It raised about $50 million.

Its IPO is perfectly timed, because it hits all the hype buttons: Blinkx is search, it is video, and best of all, it is online advertising — an industry where the merger activity is at its most frantic levels since Cisco, Nortel and Lucent binged on billion-dollar infrastructure companies at the height of the last bubble.

Blinkx’s technology takes a video’s content — the spoken words within them - and translates it into searchable text, which is something different from what most sites do. Pluggd and others translation services are making headway in this area. It is powering video search for a Lycos, Looksmart and a division AOL.

Blinkx, meanwhile, tell they’re in this for the long haul, and they think they can make money by serving targeted advertisements.

EMI recommends $6.3 bln offer from Terra Firma

LONDON (Reuters) - EMI announced on Monday terms of a recommended cash offer for the company from Maltby, a newly incorporated company from Terra Firma, for 265 pence per share, giving it an enterprise value of 3.2 billion pounds ($6.30 billion).

Internet TV company, Joost, raises $45M

Internet TV company Joost has raised $45 million in a whopper round of venture financing, giving it a significant war-chest to spend just as its product hits the market.

Lead investors were Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. CBS Corporation, Viacom and the foundation of Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing also participated.

Despite being relatively untested, Joost has gained publicity because it was started by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström. It has signed deals with several companies, including Viacom, CBS and Time Warner, to carry their content.

VideoEgg Raises Additional $3.5 Million Funding

VideoEgg, the San Francisco-based online video tools provider, which powers the video on sites like Bebo, hi5, Dogster, Piczo, Flixster and Tagged.com, has raised $3.48 million in additional third round funding from an undisclosed investor based in Luxembourg.

Last year the company announced $12 million in third round. Word on the street is that this company is soaring.

U.S. Video Startups Raised $682M Last Year

It amounts to a hill of beans and then some. U.S.-based video startups gathered $682.17 million in venture capital funding in 2006, according to statistics gathered by Dow Jones/VentureOne.

The amount was spread across both infrastructure and consumer plays, 74 companies in total. It’s up 95 percent from the $350.05 million that 54 video-related startups raised in 2005.

And already, in the first quarter of 2007, some 19 video software and services companies have raised $210.7 million. Put another way, American video startups raised $1.96 million per day over the past 15 months. And there’s been one exit to write home about: $1.7 billion for YouTube.

ScanScout Backed By $2 Million In Funding; Launching Tool That Monitors Video Topics For Advertisers

ScanScout, a Cambridge, MA-based startup that has developed a tool that lets online video publishers target the topic of a video, has received $2 million in angel investments.

Two former MIT classmates, ScanScout’s president Waikit Lau and CTO Steven Lee, developed the technology, which launches publicly next month. ScanScout monitors the content’s spoken text, audio and images and then select related advertisements that run just below the video screen.

Investors include First Round Capital, Mike Philips, founder of Atlanta-based SpeechWorks, Chris Dixon; founder of Boston’s SiteAdvisor, Ron Conway; and the William Morris Agency.

France’s Ipercast raises $3.3 million for Internet Video Distribution

Paris-based video and IPTV service Ipercast has raised $3.3 million from OTC Asset Management and Siparex. The five-year-old company manages a variety of IP multimedia services, from DRM to electronic programming guides, security, and content distribution network services.

YouTube 2006 sales pegged at $15 million

SAN FRANCISCO -- YouTube Inc. generated approximately $15 million in revenue for all of 2006, according to Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck. Peck's conclusion is based on a review of a recent regulatory filing by Google Inc (GOOG), which purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in October. The deal closed in November.