Google to Acquire On2

[ghindo]

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/ir_20090805.html
CLIFTON PARK, NY and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 5, 2009) - On2 Technologies, Inc. (NYSE Amex: ONT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) jointly announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a leading developer of video compression technology. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will be converted into $0.60 worth of Google class A common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. The transaction is valued at approximately $106.5 million.

"Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management, Google. "We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2's team and technology will help us further that goal."The implications of this are huge. On2 is the company which created and open sourced what we know today as Ogg Theora.

What will this acquisition mean for open video? What will this acquisition mean for HTML5? YouTube? H.264? Theora?

I'm eagerly waiting to see how this acquisition plays out. :)

[DeadSuperHero]

Wow, this could mean some really exciting things for YouTube.

Maybe they're securing Ogg Theora and its respective patents to make sure its absolutely open for everybody before they get behind it and officially support it?

Exciting times.

[geoken]

Isn't FLV video (when not using H.264) using an On2 codec (VP6 IIRC)? If this is the case then Google now has a codec superior to flash video that it can do what it wishes with.

[tc3000]

Google Media Player (BETA)?
Thats the only real make/break feature on the Google Chrome OS.

[The Toxic Mite]

google media player (beta)?
Thats the only real make/break feature on the google chrome os.

+1

[hanzomon4]

Isn't FLV video (when not using H.264) using an On2 codec (VP6 IIRC)? If this is the case then Google now has a codec superior to flash video that it can do what it wishes with.

Yup and now there is also vp8(I think) which is better then h264 apparently

[ghindo]

Isn't FLV video (when not using H.264) using an On2 codec (VP6 IIRC)? If this is the case then Google now has a codec superior to flash video that it can do what it wishes with.I'm pretty sure that Google uses VP6 in Flash on YouTube for some videos, but I'm not exactly sure.
Yup and now there is also vp8(I think) which is better then h264 apparentlyWell, according to On2, VP8 is better than H.264. I think many people would disagree that VP8 is better than H.264, but I'm not an expert in video codecs.

[gnomeuser]

Isn't FLV video (when not using H.264) using an On2 codec (VP6 IIRC)? If this is the case then Google now has a codec superior to flash video that it can do what it wishes with.

Actually it isn't sure that they can do whatever they please. Say that On2 licensed some patents to implement these codecs, if Google wish was to open the codec, that wouldn't be the realistic realm of possibilities.

Just saying, so people don't get all excited that we might get new superior codecs and an open future. Regardless we have a superior codec to h264 freely available.. in fact we have two. Theora (the new experimental branch is superior to h264 according to certain measurements) and Dirac (Ogg Schrodinger) which is being pitched as VC-2

[ghindo]

Just saying, so people don't get all excited that we might get new superior codecs and an open future. Regardless we have a superior codec to h264 freely available.. in fact we have two. Theora (the new experimental branch is superior to h264 according to certain measurements) and Dirac (Ogg Schrodinger) which is being pitched as VC-2I think calling Theora and Dirac "superior" to H.264 might be a bit of a stretch. In terms of licensing, Theora/Dirac are hands down superior to H.264, but in terms of actual performance, I'm not so sure. I think Theora/Dirac are less computationally intensive than H.264, but beyond that I can't think of many technical advantages the two have over H.264. H.264 has definitely been deployed, tested, and developed more than Theora/Dirac.

I haven't even ever seen Dirac used; I've only heard of Dirac being used internally at the BBC.

[hugmenot]

That’s not a stretch. It’s a preposterous claim.

[gnomeuser]

That’s not a stretch. It’s a preposterous claim.

I did specifically imply this was according certain data sources. In general h.264 is a better codec currently, however that doesn't mean there aren't areas where Theora is not just improving but setting a high standard occasionally above h.264.

http://people.xiph.org/~greg/video/ytcompare/comparison.html
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~nick/theora-soccer/