Congrats!
Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
11–20 of 38 posts
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#12Congrats to Jon and the Zencoder team! This is really exciting.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#13Nice, the kind of acquisition we like to see where the result is a continuation of the product but with even more capital behind it. Also another successful exit to add to the YC record so grats to YC as well for helping another entrepreneur achieve their goals.
Maybe I misunderstand the term in this context, but this doesn't seem like an exit.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#14Congrats guys. This is a great outcome for a solid company.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#15Nice, the kind of acquisition we like to see where the result is a continuation of the product but with even more capital behind it. Also another successful exit to add to the YC record so grats to YC as well for helping another entrepreneur achieve their goals.
Maybe I misunderstand the term in this context, but this doesn't seem like an exit.
M&A is the most common exit (other than failure). Even if a company like woot continues basically unaltered after amazon buys them, it is an exit from the perspective of venture investors.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#16Nice, the kind of acquisition we like to see where the result is a continuation of the product but with even more capital behind it. Also another successful exit to add to the YC record so grats to YC as well for helping another entrepreneur achieve their goals.
Maybe I misunderstand the term in this context, but this doesn't seem like an exit.
Zencoder is acquired by BrightCove, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:BCOV), no doubt for stock and cash. (I've not seen specific terms of the deal). Given they are publicly traded their stock can be converted into cash.
When my startup was acquired by a publicly traded company it was great for the employees because their vested stock turned into publicly tradeable shares overnight. Sort of like an IPO if you squint :-)
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#17Congrats Jon and Co. A phenomenal team, with a phenomenal product, and humility and focus to boot.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#18This is awesome, they were a hackathon project. Congrats guys! http://blog.railsrumble.com/blog/2010/11/01/zencoder-winner
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I misunderstand the term in this context, but this doesn't seem like an exit.
Zencoder is acquired by BrightCove, a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:BCOV), no doubt for stock and cash. (I've not seen specific terms of the deal). Given they are publicly traded their stock can be converted into cash. When my startup was acquired by a publicly traded company it was great for the employees because their vested stock turned into publicly tradeable shares overnight. Sort of like an IPO if you squint…
> When my startup was acquired by a publicly traded company it was great for the employees because their vested stock turned into publicly tradeable shares overnight. Sort of like an IPO if you squint :-)
It is sort of an IPO if you squint. With all the potential downside:
I was an investor in a startup that was acquired by a publicly traded company. The deal was cash+stock, for a ~3X return on investment after a year. Not bad.
Except for SEC rule 144, which meant the stock was locked up for 6 months, during which the acquiring company dropped 50% (for reasons unrelated to this acquisition).
Had the deal been all stock, that would mean 1.5X return the day I could realize .... except that I've already paid 48% taxes (35% federal + 13% nyc) on the 3X number. So it wouldn't have been a 3X return -- it would have been COMPLETE LOSS OF CAPITAL on a successful investment - or 100% loss.
Luckily for me, the stars, dates and cash/stock percentages aligned in such a way that it ended up being a modest 20% return after taxes. But a deal such as this could end up a significant net loss. (and so can an IPO).
Luckily for the other employees and most other investors, the acquired company was located in a country that has a reasonable tax regime - in which you only ever pay taxes on realized gains, and only on the day you actually get any cash into your hands. Unfortunately for me (and a couple of other investors), I have to deal with the US tax regime.
Re: Brightcove Acquires Zencoder (YC W10)
#20I love this for both the Zencoder team and my former colleagues at Brightcove; glad to see that positive acquisitions can still happen--and not at all surprised that Brightcove is behind one of them!
Brightcove is a great team, and Jeremy Allaire is a great executive. I don't know as much about Zencoder, but they found a really good place to land.
It seems to have gotten lost in the other chatter, but BCOV nicely beat their estimates and guided FY2012 revenue up, too.