Didn’t I just write that the online video publishing market is heating up quickly? Here’s another testament to that notion: KIT digital this morning announced that it has agreed to acquire privately-held competitor Multicast Media for net consideration of approximately $18 million.
The acquisition sum is comprised of $4.9 million in cash and 1.3 million shares of KIT digital common stock, plus the assumption of approximately $4.6 million in long-term liabilities.
KIT digital plans to close the acquisition by the end of this month.
This is KIT digital’s sixth strategic acquisition, following the purchases of Narrowstep, Visual Connection, Morpheum, Kamera, The Feedroom and Nunet (the latter two brands were retired by KIT digital late 2009).
Multicast specializes in live event broadcasting, Internet video management and targeted multimedia communications for about 1,000 organizations ranging from government, non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. In 2009, Multicast claims to have delivered broadcasts for some 50,000 live events and served more than 250 million video streams to a worldwide audience.
The company is said to derive an estimated $12 million in annualized recurring licensing fees for its IP video management software, with additional revenues related to professional services.
From what we can gather, Multicast has never publicly talked about how much funding it raised and when, although it is listed as a portfolio company of Northbrook, Illinois based MK Capital.
KIT digital will be integrating Media Suite’s live and content delivery solutions onto its VX-one platform, and expects to host Multicast’s clients operating on a unified platform by the third quarter of 2010. Several Multicast executives will be transitioning to KIT digital’s global management team and the company’s offices in Atlanta, Georgia will continue to be staffed by 90+ Multicast employees.
Concurrent with the Multicast acquisition, KIT digital announced that it has acquired or agreed to acquire nearly 4 million of its outstanding in-the-money warrants over the course of the first quarter, using the proceeds from its recent $15 million public equity offering.