Google Makes Episodic Acquisition

Google Inc. has made its fifth acquisition in 2010 by buying Episodic, a San Francisco-based online video startup company.
Google Makes Episodic Acquisition
A stand builder fixes a logo at the Google stand at the CeBit 2010 exhibition, the world's biggest high-tech fair in Hanover, northern Germany on March 1, 2010. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images)
4/5/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/google-97200884.jpg" alt="A stand builder fixes a logo at the Google stand at the CeBit 2010 exhibition, the world's biggest high-tech fair in Hanover, northern Germany on March 1, 2010. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images)" title="A stand builder fixes a logo at the Google stand at the CeBit 2010 exhibition, the world's biggest high-tech fair in Hanover, northern Germany on March 1, 2010. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1818973"/></a>
A stand builder fixes a logo at the Google stand at the CeBit 2010 exhibition, the world's biggest high-tech fair in Hanover, northern Germany on March 1, 2010. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images)

Google Inc. has made its fifth acquisition in 2010 by buying Episodic, a San Francisco-based online video startup company.

Founded by Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich, the company is a “comprehensive platform for broadcasting live and on-demand video to the web or any web-enabled device.”

Episodic is an online video hosting service and publishing outfit with the ability to broadcast live and on-demand content. It empowers the user to dictate when advertisements are played, as well as provides detailed analytical tools with real-time insight into the viewer’s experiences. The company provides a platform for publishers and marketers to host, stream, measure and monetize video content on the web.

Content creators, marketers and enterprise customers would engage in the services of Episodic to deliver their videos to the web as well as to Internet-enabled mobile devices such as Blackberry, Symbian, and Android smartphones, in addition to the Apple iPhone.

Episodic announced the acquisition in a blog, whereas Google confirmed the purchase in a press release clearly indicating the different approaches and possibly the different cultures of the firms. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Google’s Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt claims that the company would buy at least one company per month in 2010 as part of its effort to develop more products and attract qualified engineers. The company is funding the acquisition spree with its available cash of $24.5 billion on the balance sheet.

Google attracts two-thirds of worldwide searches, and it isn’t difficult to fathom why Episodic’s tools and products inevitably appeal to the search and ad giant. Youtube itself was a Google acquisition in 2006, costing $1.65 billion. So Google’s behavior suggests that it could be revamping as well as enhancing its YouTube product.

It has already surpassed the acquisition quota set by Schmidt. Since January, Google has bought online word-processing component DocVerse, photo-editing site Picnik, email application creator reMail, and social search company Aardvark.