Joost is on the lookout for a buyer, and Time Warner Cable is reportedly one of the companies interested in the video service provider.
Among the over-the-top video providers, Joost seemingly had an edge when the former Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom launched the site in 2007 that used peer-to-peer technology to provide high-quality videos.
A story by CNET said Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest cable operator, was interested in pursuing Joost, but both Time Warner Cable and Joost declined to comment.
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Content is king among Internet video providers, and the lack of deals with big-name Hollywood studios and other content providers has been Joost’s Achilles’ heel. For example, Sony Pictures didn’t renew its licensing agreement with Joost earlier this month but did strike a deal with YouTube (story here).
While competitors such as YouTube and Hulu are moving forward with acquiring new users, Joost has struggled, but the company would give a cable or satellite operator an instant online video platform that is already built out. Time Warner Cable and Comcast have said they are interested in providing more of their content over the Internet to their subscribers and are working on plans to do so.
Joost also has a familiar face on its management team in the form of CTO Jason Gaedtke. Gaedtke was a chief scientist at CableLabs before he joined Joost several years ago. Prior to CableLabs, he was architect and Comcast Fellow and led a team of architects within the Interactive Media division of Comcast (CIM), the latter of which designed Comcast’s Fancast video Web portal.