Skype has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qik. The transaction is expected to close in January 2011. Terms of the acquisition were not be disclosed.
Qik allows users to capture and share video across mobile devices, the Web, and desktop platform. Videos can be shared in real time or stored for viewing later, allowing for video messaging, sharing, and archiving. The Qik service is available on over 200 mobile phones across the Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile platforms. It also comes preloaded on a wide variety of mobile handsets through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and carriers. The company itself was founded in 2006, and currently has 60 employees, working at the headquarters in Redwood City, California and in an office in Moscow, Russia.
Skype and Qik both aim to enrich communications by sharing video via all devices. The acquisition of Qik helps accelerate Skype's leadership in video by adding recording, sharing, and storing capabilities to Skype's product portfolio, and lest Skype leverage the engineering expertise behind Qik's Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks.
"Qik has worked very hard to solve complex problems that allow millions of people everyday to take advantage of sharing their lives with those people who are most important to them," Vijay Tella, Chief Executive Officer of Qik, said in a statement. "Joining Skype allows Qik's team to unite with Skype's talented team to develop new and innovative products for our customers and partners."
https://www.techspot.com/news/41868-skype-to-acquire-mobile-live-video-streaming-company-qik.html
