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    AOL Europe acquires branded video distribution network goviral for $96.7 million

    Mike Butcher

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    Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

    Monday, January 31st, 2011
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    AOL Europe has lead an acquision of video distribution network Goviral today, to the tune of $96.7 million. Goviral distributes branded video content for mainstream brands, as well as content producers and advertising agencies. Originally out of Copenhagen, the company now has offices across Europe. The initial purchase is for $74.1 million and $22.6 million in a two year earn out. It joins others AOL acquisitions in the last year including, StudioNow, 5min Media, Thing Labs, Pictela, about.me and, er, TechCrunch.

    We’re hearing this deal was lead directly by Kate Burns, SVP, AOL Europe. René Rechtman, CEO, goviral secured $8.82 million Series A funding from European VC Kennet Partners in 2009.

    In a statement Burns said: “Video is core to AOL’s consumer programming strategy and goviral has created an incredibly compelling platform that delivers highly measureable and cost effective solutions to publishers and advertisers.”

    Goviral will retain its offices in the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. It’s video distribution network spans 18,000 publishers across 24 vertical markets and claims to reach 350 million users and generate more than 60 million video views monthly.

    Interestingly AOL UK’s former advertising sales director Sarah Perry joined goviral in the new role of client and agency director, three months after leaving AOL.

    CrunchBase Information
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    • http://topsy.com/eu.techcrunch.com/2011/01/31/aol-europe-acquires-branded-video-distribution-network-goviral-for-96-7-million/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention AOL Europe acquires branded video distribution network goviral for $96.7 million — Topsy.com

      [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Butcher, Neil Major, Gontran, David Beckmann, Steffen W. Frølund and others. Steffen W. Frølund said: Goviral, med danske aner, er solgt til AOL for $96.7 million http://bit.ly/fMpOa8 – Godt gået! [...]

    • Irfon

      great team at goviral. This is a good fit for aol well done Rene and Kate

    • Irfon

      great team at goviral. This is a good fit for aol well done Rene and Kate

    • http://twitter.com/ML Morten Lund

      AMASING!!! I love it – just cant find the first movie they ever did. For Theis and me in BullGuard.

      • http://twitter.com/mikebutcher Mike Butcher

        Did you invest? ;-)

      • http://twitter.com/Busk Morten Busk

        One of the videos are here: http://gprime.net/flash.php/ba… Also remember the one with the dog, but haven’t seen it

        • http://twitter.com/kasperbergholt Kasper Bergholt

          @Morten Busk — the link is broken by the shortening mechanism. Care to resend in e.g. bit.ly format?

    • http://nazimjamil.com/work Naz

      When the heck are AOL going to run out of money?

    • http://todayilearned.co.uk/2011/01/31/aol-buys-goviral-for-96m/ AOL buys goviral for $96M

      [...] Europe has just acquired goviral (video distribution company) for $96.7M. Thats all. More info here. Like this post? Follow me on Twitter | Facebook | [...]

    • AA

      Congrats team GV. They have some great guys running that business so should do well. Let’s just hope AOL do a better job this time….

    • http://twitter.com/popcoredk Anders Drejer Madsen

      that actually sounds like a great buy for AOL. I like goviral a lot.

    • http://www.shutl.co.uk Guy Westlake

      Congratulations to all the GoViral team. Great product and a great fit for AOL.

    • http://twitter.com/tjesboogie Theis Søndergaard

      Congrats, Goviral! Your first video ever was Pamelas Peak – you did that one for Morten and I in BullGuard in 2004 as far as I remember! What an amazing run you’ve had since then. I tried uploading it to Youtube – but the nudity violates their T&S…

    • Cc

      Wow. Great purchase for aol. Are they actually doing things that make sense? Oh how times have changed. Look out europe!

    • Kim

      Flot og velfortjent!

    • Anonymous

      Sure must be nice to have train loads of cash lying around. Wow.

      http://www.privacy-tools.au.tc

    • http://twitter.com/lovquist Daniel Lövquist

      Awesome! Congrats to a great team!

    • http://twitter.com/Busk Morten Busk

      @Morten Lund: One of the videos are here: http://gprime.net/flash.php/badnews Also remember the one with the dog, but haven’t seen it

    • Facebook User

      Clear sign online video space really starting to make sense as a business

    • http://www.i-boy.com/weblog/ George Nimeh

      Congrats to the GoViral team! You’ve earned it. A great biz, and now you’ve got $96.7M from AOL Europe … And between you and me, I thought AOL would have been more inclined to buy “Go Animated GIF” rather than a sharp biz like yourselves.

      But where is AOL getting all the cash? Are they reprinting all those AOL installation CDs and selling them on the streets or something?

    • http://leblog.vendeesign.com/web20/aol-europe-rachete-goviral-pour-967-millions-de-dollars/ AOL Europe rachète Goviral pour 96,7 millions de dollars

      [...] vient tout juste d’être racheté par AOL Europe pour 96,7 millions de dollars d’après TechCrunch. Plus en détail le montant d’achat initial est de 74,1 millions de dollars auxquels vont [...]

    • http://refresh.ro/2011/01/aol-europe-cumpara-goviral/ AOL Europe cumpara GoViral | refresh.ro

      [...] via eu.techcrunch.com [...]

    • http://refresh.ro Costin

      Congrats to GoViral Team! :-)

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    • http://twitter.com/churncanada Chris Pavlovski

      This is incredible, they are one great company.

    • http://twitter.com/churncanada Chris Pavlovski

      This is incredible, they are one great company.

    • http://pulse2.com/2011/02/01/aol-acquires-european-video-startup-goviral-for-96-7-million/ AOL Acquires European Video Startup Goviral For $96.7 Million

      [...] markets. They reach about 350 million users and generates about 60 million video views per month. [TechCrunch Europe] Categorized under America Online, AOL, Goviral If you liked this post, subscribe to the [...]

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