Odeo Welcomes FireAnt

We know it’s been awhile since our last blog post…but we’ve been busy working behind-the-scenes to upgrade Odeo, mainly focused on our servers and infrastructure.

Our most noticeable upgrade will be adding video to Odeo—and we’re happy to announce FireAnt will be officially coming on board to make that happen. More announcements soon regarding our plans for a public beta relaunch in December:

Odeo Announces FireAnt Acquisition, Plans for December Relaunch

New York, NY, September 14, 2007
Odeo (formerly SonicMountain), a leading audio podcast aggregation website, today announced its acquisition of the technology assets of FireAnt, an RSS video aggregation website and desktop media player. Odeo plans to expand its operations by incorporating FireAnt’s software under the Odeo brand and relaunching a new platform with next generation audio, video, mobile device support, and media search technology. A public beta relaunch is scheduled for December 2007. Originally created for the emerging videoblogging community, the FireAnt desktop media player supports all popular media formats including Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, Real, MPEG-4, DivX, and MP3. It also enables the synchronization of downloaded media to portable devices – including Apple’s iPod, Sony PSP, Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, Archos and mobile phones. FireAnt offers users a powerful desktop video experience that connects to the rapidly expanding market of portable media devices. “The FireAnt acquisition greatly accelerates ODEO’s move into the burgeoning online and mobile video community,” says Odeo President, Rick Arturo. “It’s clear that users are looking for a portable video experience, so they can view media where and when they want. FireAnt gives Odeo that capability in an easy-to-use environment”.

FireAnt’s Co-Founder and CEO, Joshua Kinberg will join the Odeo team as the Vice President of Product Development. “This is a great opportunity to bring FireAnt’s core technology to a wider audience via Odeo,” said Kinberg. “We recognize the permanent shift in how people consume digital media. Odeo is well positioned to deliver a compelling user experience and enable content to be more accessible across multiple formats and devices”.

Posted by Eric Rupert at 9/14/2007