Is Brightcove’s IPO their Exit Strategy?
Yesterday we heard word of Brightcove’s rumored move towards an IPO, only to have that confirmed, with the video company bringing on Christopher Menard as its new CFO. In an era where video is only increasing in demand, a video network going public isn’t necessarily cause for alarm. But for Brightcove, it appears to be a strategic move towards an exit.
Brightcove has a solid product, for video delivery. A relic of the days of web 2.0, Brightcove has also been around for some time. That’s primarily due to its longstanding funding, which has kept the video delivery service up to par, with several high profile clients. Expanding on that initial platform, however, has been a trickier task for Brightcove.
The contributing factors towards video’s growth as an industry include the mobile space, improved on-demand playback functions, integrated ads, and son on and so forth. One major factor is the imposition of mainstream media, which has all but taken over the web for means of content delivery, advertising and consumer interaction. This is one big area of weakness for Brightcove, when compared to other online video companies like Hulu (coincidentally, also headed towards an IPO).
For Brightcove, an “IPO may be one of the last remaining ways for Brightcove to stay relevant,” says Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins. “In a world of declining storage and bandwidth costs and a time where embedded web video players are cheaper than a dime a dozen, Brightcove has few remaining market differentiators from the competitors that offer the same services for free.
“Brightcove offers no help in getting distribution and audience for their customers, nor do they provide a monetization team. They’ve been one of the best funded video startups from the Web 2.0 bubble, so their only exit option in such a competitive market would be IPO.”
Surviving the video revolution is not a task for the weary and weak-hearted. Everyone’s getting in on this explosion, from cable companies to major film studios, folding new online methods into existing ones, and vice versa. Time will tell where Brightcove stands, and we’re sure to see some industry disruption one way or another.
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