IBM buys Hungarian tech start-up UStream

Budapest, January 21 (MTI) – IBM announced on Thursday it has acquired Hungarian start-up UStream, a provider of cloud-based live video streaming services.

IMB did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

UStream joins the newly-formed IBM Cloud Video Services unit, the company said in a statement.

“Video has become a first-class data type in business that requires accelerated performance and powerful analytics that allows clients to extract meaningful insights,” said Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President of IBM Cloud.

UStream provides cloud-based video streaming to enterprises and broadcasters for everything from corporate keynotes to live music concerts. The company streams live and on-demand video to about 80 million viewers per month for customers such as NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and The Discovery Channel.

UStream is headquartered in San Francisco, with a development office in Budapest, Hungary, and data centers in San Jose, Calif., Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Fortune magazine said on its website on Wednesday that IBM was in “advanced talks” to acquire UStream, whose online video and live streaming technology the US company already uses. The acquisition is expected to be valued at around 130 million US dollars in cash, plus possible earn-outs and employee retention packages, Fortune said citing a number of sources familiar with the deal.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters