Dailymotion, a French video-sharing site dubbed as "the Youtube of Europe," announced its intention to acquire Jilion. Jilion's development team is behind SublimeVideo, a cutting-edge HTML5 video technology platform. Financial details of the transaction, however, were not disclosed. However, TechCrunch noted that Dailymotion had been teasing about this particular acquisition in the last few months.
Dailymotion Chief Executive Officer Cedric Tournay said about its recent acquisition, "The player is at the heart of our video distribution platform - it is key for us to offer the best experience on the market, and Jilion with its SublimeVideo engine is by far the best solution out there. The Jilion team will further help us connect users, content producers and advertisers on an unprecedented viewing experience on desktop, mobile, tablets and TV."
Dailymotion today has a monthly unique visitor base of 120 million and video views of 2.5 billion. Despite the figures, comScore's ranking of the French video site, which is at number 35 of the most visited sites in the world, has the company undertaking steps to scale its business similar or equal to that of its leviathan competitor YouTube. The tech news site also said that Dailymotion might have used its USD40 million in cash stemming from a botched sale to Yahoo earlier.
Moreover, the acquisition of Jilion was a talent and tech acquisition, said Dailymotion. The French firm intended to capitalize the augmented capabilities achieved in the technology used in SublimeVideo, which includes increased social integration, enhanced playback features and new customization options.
Jilion co-founders Zeno Crivelli and Mehdi Jacques Aminian said in a joint statement, "Joining forces with Dailymotion is a tremendous opportunity for our team, and we could not be more excited about sharing our technology with such a high-profile company. Over 200 million unique users will soon be able to enjoy SublimeVideo!"
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