VBrick Systems has acquired online video platform Fliqz Media, in a push to expand into small and medium enterprises in addition to the education, government and large enterprise markets VBrick already serves, taking advantage of demand or on-demand online video by creating a "one-stop source" for streaming and VOD.
The deal allows the enterprise IP streaming video provider to reach beyond its traditional market. Its customers currently use VBrick's hardware and software solutions to power CEO broadcasts, training and development seminars and various other internal and external communications. With the addition of Fliqz, it can offer video services to SMEs looking to use video for marketing and customer outreach as well.
VBrick CEO Doug Howard declined to discuss financial details of the acquisition, but told FierceOnlineVideo the companies have been hammering out the details of the deal for about four months, closing it two weeks ago. Howard said VBrick's revenues are expected to be about $45 million this year and the Fliqz acquisition will add less than $5 million in revenue. Fliqz has just under 20 people on staff, and Howard said most are expected to be retained, bringing VBrick's workforce to about 145 by year's end. Fliqz CEO Benjamin Wayne will help guide the transition and is expected to remain onboard for at least the next three months, Howard said.
Sales teams from Fliqz and VBrick will begin selling the combined service to the market Friday, with Fliqz functioning as a stand-alone entity for the next six months or so, Howard said. He said the Fliqz offices in Santa Clara, Calif. will remain open.
The deal gives VBrick a line to the SME market, which has been a mainstay for Fliqz.
"One of the strong value propositions we saw was that Fliqz goes after the SME marketplace, while we are in the kind of medium to extremely large businesses," Howard said. "That gives us a lot of flexibility with our partners who have been asking us for more SME solutions."
Many current Fliqz subscribers use video to communicate with customers across social media platforms like Facebook. And because the Fliqz platform provides a module specifically focused on video submission to search engines to maximize search engine optimization, it provides greater value to enterprises that may have already experimented with other on-demand video services in the past.
"Market demand for enterprise-wide video communications including live and on-demand as well as internal and external communications, continues to grow rapidly," said Andrew W. Davis, senior partner at Wainhouse Research. "The Fliqz acquisition reflects VBrick's focus on aggressively addressing that growth. Fliqz is a strong complement to the core capabilities the company has already been delivering."
Fliqz also enables rich reporting on user engagement, completion rate, viral distribution, and video popularity, data that helps a company evaluate the effectiveness of their video content.
"We understand there's a huge opportunity for one player to really provide a simple solution in the marketplace for video on demand and live streaming together," said Howard. "It's pretty rare in the marketplace that you find streaming and VOD strength in one company... it's even more exciting when you have one company that can deliver that as a product, as well as a service, as well as a managed service (which VBrick hopes to do by the end of the year)."
Launched in the late-1990s, VBrick has seen annual growth in the 25- to 30-percent range and expects revenue to exceed $100 million in three years, said Howard. The company currently has some 9,000 corporate, government and education customers.
For more:
- see this release
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