Microsoft acquires VideoSurf for $70M
Estimates on market are that world's largest software company bought Israeli video search engine startup to boost its own Bing search engine
The company, based in San Mateo, California, was founded by Lior Delgo, Professor Achi Brandt, Dr. Eitan Sharon and Shai Deljo.
Many of the investors behind the company are Israelis, among them Orbotech founder Hanan Gilutz, who was one of VideoSurf's first investors.
Last April, Israeli investment fund Pitango held a $16 million financing round and, according to estimates, invested some $8 million in the company.
The deal with Microsoft will probably yield a two to three times return on Pitango's investment within a year – an impressive achievement for a VC fund in the current economic environment. Eitan Beck handled the investment for the fund.
Other than those mentioned, the company's investor roster also includes some heavy batters the likes of former US Vice-President Al Gore, Facebook COO and Google's former Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations Sheryl Sandberg, Dave Goldberg and Verizon's VC fund.
According to the IVC research website, since its inception five years ago, VideoSurf managed to raise a total of $28 million.
VideoSurf is the developer of a visual identification video search engine. The company's SE indexes over 250 million videos from various sites such as YouTube, CNN and Facebook and is used by major websites such as CBS and Warner Brothers.
Estimates on the market are that Microsoft acquired the company in order to expand the capabilities of its own search engine Bing and attempt to bite into Google's search engine market stake.
VideoSurf and Microsoft were unavailable for comment.
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