In a deal that could signal the end of the road for Joost.com, it was announced Tuesday that some of its assets had been purchased by Adconion Media, which according to their website is the “largest independent global audience network providing compelling interactive media solutions for our advertisers, agencies and publisher partners.” The deal has internet technology pundits speculating that the once promising Joost, created by the founders of Kazaa and Skype, is officially dead.“In spite of the founders’ prior successes, truckloads of venture capital dollars, and a few early and impressive content deals, it flopped. The end,” wrote Caroline McCarthy for CNET News.
“The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it’s likely a firesale that isn’t bringing any returns to Joost’s investors,” wrote Robin Wauters for TechCrunch.com.
Joost.com was started by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the infamous duo who founded the once popular Kazaa.com P2P file-sharing network. Also famous for starting Skype and the content management system Joomla, the pair’s involvement with Joost after so many past successes brought lots of hype, investor dollars and high expectations to the project.
What exactly Adconion plans to do with the assets it acquired is still unclear. The company has made general comments suggesting its interest will be in boosting its ability to serve video-based advertisements.
“Video is a top priority for our company, and through the acquisition of the Joost assets we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution,” said CEO Tyler Moebius.
Moebius also said the company will continue to operate Joost in some form as a platform for showing off its own branded content.
