KIT Digital acquires three startups for $77M

Ronny Kerr · January 31, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1683

KickApps, Kewego and Kyte all exit via acquisition; mobile and social video looks bigger than ever

KIT Digital, provider of cloud-based video solutions for the enterprise, announced Monday that it has separately acquired New York City-based KickApps, Paris-based Kewego, and San Francisco-based Kyte, for aggregate consideration of approximately $77.2 million.
 
KickApps provides social networking software for clients looking to develop their own online communities for any number of purposes, from social marketing to customer support to knowledge-sharing networks of employees. The business helps a wide range of well-known companies and brands, including Intel, Live Nation, and Madonna.
 
“Video and social media belong together,” blogged KickApps CEO Alex Blum, explaining the motivation behind the merger. Blum has been appointed COO of KIT Digital.
 
KickApps won’t be shutting down its service, but will instead be offering its customers even more features:
 
“Thank you to our clients and partners, for everything you’ve done to contribute to the success of the KickApps brand. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got planned for you next!”
 
B2B video provider Kewego develops technologies to help its clients distribute videos on the Web, on Intranet servers, on mobile applications, on social networks and more. With 450 clients worldwide, including Microsoft, Coca-Cola and VW, the startup managed to make $10.2 million in revenue for 2010. (That’s almost half of the total revenues for all three acquired companies, which KIT says amounts to about $25 million.)
 
Kyte, like a little mix of the two above companies, combines online and mobile video with elements of the social Web to create a real-time platform for on-demand content.
 
The biggest of all these companies, of course, is KIT Digital, which serves 1200 clients in 45 countries around the world. Some clients include Google, Verizon and the Associated Press (AP).
 
For KIT, the acquisitions really come down to speeding up execution of new features by quickly gaining new technologies and services:
 
Acceleration of KIT’s product roadmap by 12-18 months by adding several key technology and product features, including advanced social media tools (KickApps), superior mobile publishing and software development kit (SDK) features (Kyte), and behind-the-firewall and digital signage capabilities for enterprise clients (Kewego).
 
Additionally, the company has bolstered its executive team with the help of executives from all three acquired companies.
 
The press release for this triple acquisition is one of the biggest and most detailed I’ve yet to see, so if you have a specific interest in one of the three deals, be sure to check out the press release.
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Ronny Kerr

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KickApps

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KickApps is a hosted platform that allows webmasters to quickly and easily deploy user-generated content and social networking functionality directly on their websites.

Kyte

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Kyte is a white-label, cloud-based publishing platform for live and on-demand video. The Kyte Platform reduces the cost and complexity of delivering social video experiences to websites, mobile and connected devices. Kyte powers online video for top media companies and brands, including ABC, Armani Exchange, Clear Channel, ESPN, Fox News, MTV, Monster Energy and NATO.

 

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