IBM on Thursday confirmed that it has acquired live video streaming service provider Ustream. Financial terms of the purchase weren't disclosed although Fortune believes the deal was valued at roughly $130 million.
IBM said Ustream will join its newly-formed Cloud Video Services unit which combines assets from the company's research and development labs and various acquisitions including the recent acquisition of Clearleap. It'll also lean on technologies from Aspera and Cleversafe, the latter being a developer and manufacturer of object-based storage software and appliances that IBM scooped up late last year.
General Manager Braxton Jarratt will lead the new unit, we're told.
Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud, said aligning their expansive video and cloud innovations into an integrated unit will create opportunities for clients to take advantage of the medium in the most strategic way possible.
Ustream was created in 2007 by John Ham, Brad Hunstable and Dr. Gyula Feher as a way for those in the Army to talk to their friends and families while deployed overseas. The service has grown considerably since its early days, welcoming roughly 80 million viewers each month for customers that include The Discovery Channel, Facebook, NASA, Nike and Samsung.
Ustream in its earlier days competed with several other similar outfits including Justin.tv. As you may know, that project ultimately evolved into the live gamestreaming sensation that is Twitch.
https://www.techspot.com/news/63555-ibm-acquires-ustream-rolls-new-cloud-video-unit.html
