AOL Adds Video Capabilities with StudioNow Acquisition

AOL has closed on its acquisition of StudioNow, a provider of video creation, distribution and storage technology. AOL, which recently spun out of media giant Time Warner, said Monday that it paid nearly $36 million in cash and stock for the Nashville, Tenn.-based StudioNow.

AOL will use StudioNow’s assets to add video capabilities to its Seed.com content-management system.

Seed.com purchases and distributes work for all of AOL’s properties, including entertainment, news, sports, lifestyle, technology and finance. Seed.com also enables contributors’ work to be seen, heard or read on AOL’s more than 80 niche content sites. Until now, Seed.com has put out calls for text and photos from its network of professionals.

Tapping Assets

“StudioNow and AOL share a passionate commitment to high-quality content, services and technology, and that makes us a natural fit for this new partnership,” said David Mason, cofounder and CEO of StudioNow. “This new chapter for StudioNow presents a tremendous opportunity for our growing professional creative network to reach new audiences, diversify their assignments, and increase their income as the number of projects coming from the numerous AOL properties will create a surge in video assignments.”

While AOL has the technological expertise to develop its own technology for the Seed.com platform, it decided not to.

“I think there are times to build IT in-house — i.e., Seed.com — and times to leapfrog through an acquisition like StudioNow,” said Caroline Campbell, vice president of AOL corporate communications. “You’ll see this type of mix from us going forward — build it/buy it — aligned to our strategy and aimed at making the company successful long-term.”

In this case, AOL may have gained an additional perk with the acquisition. AOL plans to tap into StudioNow’s national network of more than 3,000 professionals, who will be asked to produce video at the request of content…

source : www.newsfactor.com

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