Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the trusted leader for video content
management and webcasting
solutions, announced today that the company has entered into non-binding
term sheets to acquire MediaMission, and to purchase the remaining
shares of stock in Mediasite K.K., the market leading education and
enterprise video providers in the Netherlands and Japan. With these
agreements, Sonic Foundry expects to significantly expand its global
market reach in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and accelerate the
company's commitment to enterprise video communications world-wide.
Sonic Foundry, which has seen a 25% growth in international billings,
believes the acquisition of MediaMission will provide operational
synergies between the combined organizations by leveraging a larger
geographic and cloud footprint; allowing the company to better align
with customers globally; providing follow-the-sun customer support; and
further driving global sales.
“Sonic Foundry’s commitment to a global customer base will provide the
support we need to expand our combined footprint in Europe, focus on new
product offerings and tailor new business models to drive more
business,” said Robert Jan Brouwer, co-founder, MediaMission. “It is our
mission to make online video communication easy to use and produce in
the enterprise and education. I look forward to this deeper partnership
with Sonic Foundry as we work together to realize a shared vision of
providing scalable, secure and streamlined video content management
solutions.”
MediaMission, founded as a Sonic Foundry partner in 2004, has been a
catalyst for the rapid adoption of large-scale, enterprise-wide academic
video programs in the region’s largest universities, including TU Delft.
“TU Delft’s Collegerama, powered by Mediasite, is home to 15,000 hours
of video, is a member of edX and a model for universities around the
world who are looking to realize their campus wide video content
management strategies. The program would not be what it is today without
the vision and partnership of MediaMission and Sonic Foundry,” said Leon
Huijbers, NewMedia Centre, TU Delft.
"Sonic Foundry has always taken our customers and us seriously when we
give feedback on how we use Mediasite here in Europe. They take time to
listen and understand our specific requirements and we see our feature
requests come into the product update after update,” said Tom van Buren,
co-founder, MediaMission. “We look forward to having the opportunity to
work even more closely with the dedicated, passionate and talented
technical team at Sonic Foundry to bring more exciting improvements to
products and services that are geared to our European market.”
“Working beside MediaMission for the past decade has been a true honor,
and we look forward to welcoming them as part of our team,” said Gary
Weis, Chief Executive Officer, Sonic Foundry. “Robert Jan’s and Tom’s
leadership and innovation have enabled MediaMission to redefine academic
and enterprise video in the Netherlands, and the company shares our
vision of creating world-class customer experiences as we take on new
global markets.”
Terms
Sonic Foundry will pay €1.1 million for all the outstanding stock in
MediaMission Holding B.V., comprised of €330,000 cash, €495,000
subordinated note payable over three years and €275,000 in shares of
Sonic Foundry stock. MediaMission recorded revenues for the year ended
December 31, 2012 of €1.3 million with pretax income of €32,000. Had the
acquisition of MediaMission occurred on or before January 1, 2012, Sonic
Foundry would have recorded approximately $1.0 million of additional
revenue, during the calendar year ended December 31, 2012. Additional
details will be found in Sonic Foundry’s Annual Report on Form 10-K,
which will be filed in December 2013. The transaction, which is subject
to execution of a definitive stock purchase agreement and customary
closing conditions, is expected to close within the next 45 days.
Investor Webcast
Sonic Foundry will discuss this announcement and its acquisition of
Mediasite K.K. during its quarterly investor webcast today at 3:30 p.m.
CT/4:30 p.m. ET. To access the presentation, go to sonicfoundry.com/earnings.
An archive of the conference call will be available for 90 days.
About MediaMission
The first European reseller for Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, MediaMission
(www.mediamission.nl)
is a master distributor of Mediasite for The Netherlands based in De
Bilt. In the last decade MediaMission has enabled Mediasite use at more
then twenty higher education institutions including 10 universities.
Together with clients, partners and preferred suppliers, the company
innovates existing infrastructure and assets for the easy production,
distribution and use of rich video. Because of it’s wide knowledge of
education, information transmittal, IT and comparative media studies,
MediaMission is in a unique position to make implementations of large
scale rich media presentations possible.
About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.
Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO) is the trusted market leader for enterprise
webcasting solutions, providing video
content management and distribution for education, business and
government. Powered by the patented Mediasite
webcasting platform and webcast
services of Mediasite Events, the company empowers people to advance
how they share knowledge online, using video webcasts to bridge time and
distance, enhance learning outcomes and improve performance.
© 2013 Sonic Foundry, Inc. Product and service names mentioned herein
are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.
Copyright Business Wire 2013