AOL Acquires Video Syndication Startup Vidible

AOL is confirming that it has acquired Vidible.

Recode broke the news shortly before the official announcement. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Recode says the price was around $50 million.

Vidible aims to help websites expand their video selection by running content from other publisher — they can either search through what’s available in the Vidible network or just include a tag that will automatically recommend relevant videos. The startup raised a $3.35 million Series A led by Greycroft (with participation from IDG Ventures) about a year ago.

AOL (which owns TechCrunch) says the acquisition will expand the company’s content management tools and also plug into its new ad platform called ONE.

“AOL is focused on transforming the digital media environment by creating an open marketplace for video,” said Dermot McCormack, president of AOL Video and Studios, in the acquisition press release. “We are thrilled to welcome the Vidible team to AOL as we accelerate our mission of providing our partners the platform and tools they need to better create, curate, syndicate and monetize their content across the globe.”

The company acquired another video syndication company, 5min, back in 2010, and it also bought video ad platform Adap.tv last year.

Update: I spoke briefly to Greycroft’s John Elton about the acquisition. He’d previously laid out Vidible’s value in pretty straightforward terms — it’s meeting “increasing demand from content sites for video” and “increasing demand from advertisers for video impressions.” And that, essentially, is what he pointed to today in explaining why the deal makes a lot of sense for AOL.

Elton also noted that Greycroft previously backed Vidible co-founder and CEO Michael Hyman’s video ad startup Oggifinogi, which was acquired by Collective in 2011. Meanwhile, Hyman’s co-founder and president Tim Mahlman was previously an entrepreneur in residence at Greycroft.