Upload video. Aggregate and curate video from multiple sources. Mix your pro, user gen, and web gathered content with Magnify.net. CastTV. Motorola Mobility Acquires Video Guide Startup SetJam. Today, SetJam, a company that describes itself as “building the future of TV,” has announced it has been acquired by Motorola Mobility. The company’s products currently include a customizable TV and movie widgets designed for embedding on websites, plus developer-friendly tools like a REST API and XML download of the SetJam database. The TV widgets are designed to be context-sensitive and offer full CSS-styling, so they blend in with the website where they’re placed, while also allowing the site’s owner to increase revenue through affiliate income that comes from clicks to third-party sources.
The company’s widgets include links to iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and others, which would be the source of this affilate income. A list of the supported content sources found on the company’s homepage also includes Cartoon Network, MTV, Disney, Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, Spike, TBS, CBS, WB, FX, South Park Studios, Crunchyroll, Fox, TNT and Crackle among those SetJam offers. VideoSurf. With Its $100M Acquisition Of VideoSurf, Microsoft’s Video Search Now Has Big Potential. Yesterday morning, we reported that Microsoft had acquired Israeli video startup, VideoSurf, for approximately $70 million. The deal indeed has been greenlighted, as Microsoft confirmed in its blog post yesterday. However, at the time, the price of the acquisition was unclear; several sources (who wished to remain anonymous) pegged the number at $70 million. But, today we’ve heard from a solid source that the actual price of the acquisition was actually just under $100 million — in cash.
Sure, it’s not quite the $8.5 billion Microsoft paid for popular voice and video-over-IP service, Skype, but for a relatively young startup, this is a big win. Why did Microsoft make this acquisition? Well, just as Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Xbox Live and VideoKinect for Xbox Live to allow gamers to Skype from their consoles, the tech giant plans to add VideoSurf’s technology into the Xbox 360 ecosystem (specifically Xbox Live) as well.