Google picks up video software platform Anvato

The company will use Anvato's technology to beef up its Cloud Platform

Google is looking to beef up its cloud capabilities, with an eye specifically on video, in order to give better tools to the media and entertainment industries. 

That's why the company has announced the acquisition of Anvato, a software platform for encoding, editing, publishing and distribution of video content across multiple platforms. 

No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but Anvato will be joining Google's Cloud Platform team. Google says that Anvato’s Media Content Platform will complement its "efforts to enable scalable media processing and workflows in the cloud."

Founded in 2007, Anvato is a video software platform that creates multiple adaptive bitrate streams for uninterrupted playback on any device or website. Its products include software for live streaming infrastructure, video encoding editing, publishing and secure syndication.

For Google, Anvato will allow the company further develop over-the-top (OTT) technologies.

"With OTT adoption rapidly accelerating, the Cloud Platform and Anvato teams will work together to deliver cloud solutions that help businesses in the media and entertainment industry scale their video infrastructure efforts and deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device — be it their smartphone, tablet or connected television," Belwadi Srikanth, Senior Product Manager, Google Cloud Platform, wrote in a blog post. 

How exactly Google will incorporate Anvato's technology isn't clear yet, but Srikanth promises more details in the next few months. 

For Anvato, being a part of Google will give the company greater scale and access.

"We are thrilled to bring together Anvato with the scale and power of Google Cloud Platform to provide the industry’s best offering for OTT and mobile video. This will allow us to supercharge our capabilities, accelerate the pace of innovation, and deliver tomorrow’s video solutions faster, enabling media companies to better serve their customers," Alper Turgut, the company's CEO, wrote in a blog post. 

He also made it sound as though Anvato will remain available for its existing customers.

"Anvato will continue to deliver the full range of cutting edge video processing software solutions for pay TV operators, programmers, broadcasters and live event producers, and will do so on the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure," he said. 

Anvato's customers include NBC Universal, Fox Sports, Univision, Gray TV, Post Newsweek. Anvato products incorporate its proprietary intellectual property including Software-based Live Streaming, Live Ad Replacement, Scalable Video Encoding, Perceptual Signature, Content Tracking and OnTarget Monetization.

The company had raised $2.55 million in venture funding. 

This is only Google's fif acquisition this year, after it previously bought Singapore-based communications service Pie, virtual guide Synergyse, and high-speed Internet provider Webpass. This comes only a day after Google acquired image recognition startup Moodstocks.

(Image source: anvato.com)