CenturyLink expands into video by buying French start-up Streamroot
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CenturyLink expands into video by buying French start-up Streamroot

PL Theron.jpg

CenturyLink has bought video delivery company Streamroot for an undisclosed price – along with the team of mathematicians and engineers who set it up in Paris six years ago.

According to Streamroot’s own website, it employs just 30 people, in Paris, New York and Denver. CenturyLink has not said how much it is paying.

“Streamroot and CenturyLink share a vision to improve the user experience with rich media content by utilising edge computing and data science,” said Pierre-Louis Théron (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Streamroot.

“We believe joining forces with CenturyLink will accelerate our ability to innovate for the benefit of our customers, internet users and network operators across the globe.”

CenturyLink said the acquisition represents another step in its “commitment to innovation as a leader in content delivery network (CDN) and edge compute services”.

Théron and two colleagues founded the company in May 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He and his two colleague co-founders COO Nikolay Rodionov and CTO Axel Delmas are all Parisian mathematicians and engineers who graduated around 2012.

CenturyLink said that Streamroot’s disruptive content delivery models enable connected consumer devices such as smart phones, tablets, computers, set-top consoles and smart TVs to participate in the serving of premium content through a secure and private mesh delivery.

“Streamroot brings a data-driven approach to improving the user experience, particularly during peak internet traffic hours. Streamroot’s customers have chosen peer assisted and multi-CDN approaches to gain an advantage over their competition when serving popular, high quality content to large audiences globally,” said CenturyLink’s VP of global internet and content delivery services, Bill Wohnoutka.

CenturyLink said it “believes its customers will be able to achieve performance otherwise not feasible with conventional CDN delivery methods. This hybrid delivery approach for over-the-top (OTT) video streaming is anticipated to allow content consumers to enjoy a higher quality user experience”.

Wohnoutka added: “This technology and the team that invented it are crucial to helping us enable high-quality viewing experiences, especially within hard to serve markets.”

 

 

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