Adconion, an online advertising company, has acquired most of Joost, bringing to an unhappy end the online video venture backed by the founders of Skype.
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Joost in 2006, raised $45m from investors including Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon, before launching the service to great fanfare in 2007.
But Joost struggled to compete with online video sites run by broadcasters, such as the BBC’s iPlayer and Hulu, owned by NBC and Fox. It abandoned its consumer-facing business in July to focus on selling its technology to other media companies.
Last month, its UK arm was put into liquidation. Now Adconion has acquired some of Joost’s technology, staff and content deals for an undisclosed fee, along with the rights to Joost.com. Read more
“Don’t panic” – the words on the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – should also be emblazoned on the front page of the EU telecoms package, which was voted through on Tuesday.
Ebay is betting big on mobile shopping. Last month we revealed 
Richard Waters
Chris Nuttall
Maija Palmer
Robin Kwong
Tim Bradshaw