Verizon Digital Media Services Enters Agreement To Acquire Volicon

Los Angeles, March 16, 2016 – Verizon Digital Media Services, now a part of AOL, today announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Volicon, a  provider of video capture, archival, compliance monitoring and clip creation workflow for broadcasters. Volicon will become a key asset for Verizon Digital Media Services, further establishing Verizon Digital Media Services as a key provider of technology and media services to the broadcast and online video industry, according to the company.

“With the shift to all things digital, mobile and video, we are committed to enabling all creators, publishers and broadcasters to bring their content to the internet with the highest quality and a trusted partner globally,” said Verizon Digital Media Services President Bob Toohey. “Volicon’s role as a trusted provider to more than 1,200 broadcast and video operators around the world, combined with deep expertise in video monitoring and analysis, will improve visibility, transparency, and quality of our clients content and ads over our global delivery footprint.”

Volicon’s technology, combined with Verizon Digital Media Services’ Video Lifecycle Solution, will provide customers with a seamless option to take existing broadcast feeds and channels directly to OTT cloud-based delivery models, according to a statment by Verizon.

“We are pleased to become part of the Verizon family and recognize tremendous alignment of our vision,” said Eli Warsawski, Volicon Founder and CEO. “This undertaking represents a strategic opportunity for our products to evolve and for our customers to greatly benefit.”

The combination of Verizon Digital Media Services and Volicon further extends the boundaries of what an end-to-end video solution represents. Both companies already have complementary video workflow tools to allow content creators and broadcasters to generate assets, clips, highlights and social sharing opportunities from existing live, linear and VOD workflows. Verizon Digital Media Services also has extensive capabilities to leverage and augment various existing broadcast automation signaling for automatic recognition of program boundaries, ad insertion, blackout and content replacement and entitlement rules.

Volicon was founded by Eli Warsawski, Julius Perl and Yehuda Brand in 2005. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.