Online video distribution startup Ooyala announced Tuesday that it has received a strategic investment from hardware maker Motorola Mobility. Terms of the financing weren’t disclosed, although an SEC filing from July amends a previously announced $ 22 million round from last September.
The announcement comes a day after Ooyala’s launch of new social features, which will allow its customers to publish video files to Facebook, enable group viewing sessions and receive payments in Facebook credits. Miramax is the first studio to announce its use of the new social tools, with its Miramax eXperience Facebook app.
The strategic investment also was announced while Motorola is in the midst of being acquired by Google in a deal worth $ 12.5 billion. That deal, which was announced a month ago, is still pending regulatory review but would put Google in the hardware business, making mobile devices and set-top boxes, while also providing some valuable patent protection.
Ooyala founders Bismarck and Belsasar Lepe, along with CTO Sean Knapp, are all Google alums, leaving the search giant in 2007 to create the video distribution platform. That said, Google bought competing online video platform provider Episodic in April 2010, although it’s been quiet on what has happened to those assets since.
Finally, the investment comes not long after Brightcove filed its S-1 registration statement, with plans to go public later this year. Brightcove’s filing showed revenues of $ 43.7 million in 2010, and $ 28.3 million in the first half of this year. It also showed continued losses from the company, to the tune of $ 9.7 million in the first half.
Disclosure: The GigaOM Network has a commercial relationship with Ooyala for the delivery of its video content.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Refracted Moments™.
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