Telestream Acquires Encoding Specialist Popwire

Acquisition strengthens Telestream’s global leadership position and expands encoding expertise, European presence, and product offerings

Nevada City, Calif. August 1, 2006 – Telestream, the leading global provider of multiformat media encoding and file-based delivery solutions for the broadcast and entertainment industry, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Popwire from Teleca, a telecommunications leader. The acquisition adds the products, technologies and employee resources of Swedish-based Popwire to those of US-based Telestream, Inc, a privately held company. Effective immediately, Popwire will operate as Telestream AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telestream, and will continue to be located in Sweden.

“Popwire includes incredibly talented individuals and extremely well-engineered products which fit nicely with our existing Flip4Mac and Workgroup and Enterprise product offerings,” said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream. “Having the resources to make this acquisition happen reflects eight years of building our company into the successful business it is today. Telestream now has the deepest transcoding expertise in the industry with the broadest technology and products implemented on both Mac and Windows platforms. Our solutions serve a broad spectrum of media workflows from the consumer to the compression expert all the way up to complex enterprise workflows. As industry needs continue to grow, this acquisition enables us to better offer more diverse media encoding applications.”

“Telestream is an excellent fit for both Popwire employees and our products,” said Oskar Boding, Business Unit Manager of Popwire (now Telestream AB). Telestream’s experience in broadcast and successful global commercialization will provide tremendous leverage for our product offerings. This also broadens availability of our products for workgroup and enterprise customers as well as for the increasing number of Mac OS X professionals around the world.”

Popwire’s craft-encoding tools target the multiformat media encoding needs of digital media production professionals. The NAB2006 award-winning Compression Master is a desktop media compression application for Mac OS X users. It supports a wide range of formats and compliments Telestream’s Flip4Mac digital media components. The combination of Compression Master and Compression Engine, a server-based solution for high-volume applications, fits well with Telestream’s industry-leading FlipFactory transcoding workflow automation applications. Other products include Live Engine which provides live broadcast streams for mobile operators and is broadly deployed worldwide.

Acquisition Supports Telestream Strategy and Strengthens Global Leadership Position
The acquisition supports Telestream’s strategy of helping content owners, creators and distributors access, repurpose, exchange and deliver video and audio content across data networks. The combined product offerings provide synergy and strengthen the company’s encoding leadership position in the media and entertainment industry. The acquisition also strengthens Telestream’s presence in Europe, where business growth is very strong.

While Telestream’s media encoding and delivery products address interoperability, file exchange, and workflow efficiency, particularly in the broadcast sector, Popwire’s encoding solutions were developed from the ground up to address the craft of media production and include well designed interactive user interfaces, excellent picture quality and fast conversion speed. Popwire’s expertise and development on the Mac side will enhance and optimize both Telestream’s Windows and Mac-based products. The Popwire addition enables Telestream to provide an even broader range of products and technologies for the mobile, Web TV, podcasting and streaming markets.

Telestream will officially introduce the integrated offerings in Stand 7.218 at the International Association of Broadcasters Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, September 8-12.

For more information about Telestream and its products, visit www.telestream.net or www.flip4mac.com.

####

Trademarked company and product names are the property of their respective companies.

About Telestream (www.telestream.net)
Telestream products have set the standard with the world's leading media and entertainment companies, corporations, and government institutions for the encoding, organizing, and delivery of digital media. Customers rely on Telestream products for convenient, cost-effective, and robust digital media access and exchange over IP networks. The company's core workgroup and enterprise solutions and newer Flip4Mac tools for the Macintosh streamline digital media workflows for content owners, creators, and distributors in any industry segment. Telestream and its team of video experts are located in Nevada City, the “video valley” region of Northern California. The company is privately held.

 

top