Brightcove Sold for $233m, Akamai Swoops in for Edgio, and Harmonic Raises For Sale Sign
Brightcove, the Technical Emmy-winning video platform vendor, has been sold to app developer Bending Spoons for $233 million. It is the Italian company’s sixth acquisition this year and it is thought to be planning an IPO on the NYSE.
Brightcove’s most recent market cap was $143.98 million, which is notably lower than the acquisition price, reflecting the “substantial premium” Bending Spoons is offering to shareholders, according to InvestingPro. Brightcove maintains a gross profit margin of 61.65%, indicating strong underlying value in its core business which may explain Bending Spoons' interest in acquiring the company.
Brightcove was founded in Boston in 2004 starting out with a video player and expanding into a full online video services and monetization suite. Since its IPO in 2012, the company has focused on delivering video streaming solutions to a diverse clientele, including BBC, Showtime, AMC Networks and the LPGA.
Of late however it has faced challenges, reporting a net loss of $3 million for its latest quarter to November 4. The company’s financial health has been under scrutiny with its growth metrics considered underwhelming. InvestingPro judged its financial performance to be “mixed,” with stagnation in revenue growth for the last twelve months (at $199.8m a slight decline of 0.22% year-over-year) a factor in the Brightcove’s decision to pursue a strategic sale.
Last month, Edenbrook Capital doubled its stake in the company to nearly 30%. Analysts noted at the time that Edenbrook might be positioning for a “value play,” anticipating a “potential market correction or strategic shifts within Brightcove that could enhance shareholder value.”
In August, the Milan-headquartered Bending Spoons bought file-sharing platform WeTransfer. That followed the July purchase of digital publishing platform Issuu, the live streaming app StreamYard in May. In February it paid around $100m for the digital assets of Mosaic Group, which makes apps for mobile phones, and Meetup, a social network with 60 million members used to organise in-person and virtual events and gatherings. In January 2023 it acquired note-taking software firm Evernote.
Bending Spoons, which launched in 2013 and named after a scene in The Matrix, had a valuation of over $2.5 billion as of February. Its 39-year-old CEO and co-founder Luca Ferrari told Reuters, “If and when we choose to pursue an IPO, we'll evaluate all reasonable options. Today, we have a slight preference for a listing in the United States, but our views may change.”
Marc DeBevoise, Brightcove’s CEO since 2022, said, “Brightcove is a storied and successful enterprise SaaS leader with 20 years of history, 12 of them as a public company. We have been a pioneer and innovator in the streaming market, from the early days of video player technologies to the leading video-powered engagement platform we are today. Today’s announcement will enable Brightcove to leverage the technology and market expertise of Bending Spoons and best position Brightcove to continue to thrive in the streaming and engagement technology market.”
The transaction is expected to finalise in the first half of 2025.
Akamai Acquires Edgio Assets
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September select assets of CDN Edgio were picked up by Akamai last week. Edgio listed $379 million in assets and $369m in liabilities, according to court papers. At the time, its network comprised 300 Points of Presence (PoPs) worldwide, more than 7,000 ISP interconnections, and more than 275Tbps of global capacity serving around 900 customers.
Akamai was the winning bidder of the assets which included customer contracts from Edgio’s businesses in security and content delivery, and non-exclusive license rights to Edgio’s entire patent portfolio. No assets related to the Edgio network were acquired by Akamai.
Dan Rayburn noted that investment firm and Edgio debtor Lynrock won the assets for Uplynk and Interdigital, some of Edgio’s patents.
Edgio was only formed in 2022 after Limelight Networks acquired Edgecast from Yahoo and Apollo Global Management, with the combined company rebranding that year. Between 2013 and 2016, EdgeCast was a subsidiary of Verizon. Verizon acquired Yahoo! in 2017 and merged it with its Verizon Digital Media Services business (including the CDN service) to form Oath and later Verizon Media.
In 2023 Lumen and StackPath quit the CDN business, selling their enterprise customers to Akamai.
For Sale Alert
One company with a "for sale" sign to watch is Harmonic. The cable and video technology company initiated a review of its assets at the end of 2023 after posting a net loss of $6.5 million for its Q4. The company abandoned those plans in the spring, citing a soft buyer’s market, but a sale of some or all its divisions are now back on the table with 2.3% stakeholder Ancora Holdings urging the board Harmonic to explore a possible sale and maximise shareholder value.
Romanesque Capital, another a Harmonic shareholder, supported the call for a review aimed at a possible sale. Multiple cable industry experts have speculated to Light Reading that Comcast could make a good fit as buyer given the operator's reliance on Harmonic's virtual cable modem termination system.
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