Sonic buys DivX, opens door to CinemaNow for Mac
updated 08:25 am EDT, Wed June 2, 2010
Sonic acquires DivX to improve Roxio
Sonic today acquired video codec maker DivX for $3.75 per share, or the equivalent of $323 million. The deal gives the owner of Roxio one of the more popular video formats and are intended to give Sonic a better means of providing video over the Internet, especially for home electronics. Many Blu-ray and DVD players, TVs, and set-top boxes already support DivX videos, and DivX is already using copy protection approved by movie studios, Sonic said.
Both companies' director boards have approved the deal and expect it to be finalized in September.
Most of the focus will be on RoxioNow, the platform underneath CinemaNow and other services. Although not stated as part of the deal, the takeover potentially expands the reach of CinemaNow to the Mac and other non-Windows platforms. The current implementation's dependence on Windows Media copy protection inherently limits is reach, but DivX already exists on the Mac and should support similar features.
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: Oct 1999
Why?
Why pay a penny for a balkanized version of MPEG4 using the outdated and outmoded AVI container? This whole codec war between VP8, H264/AVC and Divx is becoming a fur-lined ocean-going pain in the a**. Thankfully, since the unfortunate collapse of HD-DVD, it seems that it's a fight that Microsoft are no longer particularly interested in. Why can't there be one (open) ring to rule them all?