DivX bought for $ 323 million by Sonic

The company owns the Sonic Solutions Roxio burning software and publishes video distribution technologies and video-on demand CinemaNow has announced the acquisition of DivX Inc.. According to the website dedicated Paid content , the amount of the transaction, which must be finalized in September, would amount to 323 million dollars (265 million euros).

The DivX codec was created in 1999 by the French Jerome Rota, who copied the principles of MPEG-4 for Microsoft, can compress files several gigabytes in a few hundred megabytes. Use this format on P2P networks during the 2000s enabled the codec to spread rapidly, it was quickly associated with pirated videos, which circulated on the Internet.

DivX is now installed as a recognized brand in the world, the format that supports DRM (DRM) is officially viewed by more than 8,500 devices (TVs, DVD or Blu-Ray, mobile phones ...). Over 1 50 manufacturers have been licensed, and more than 3 million licensed products have been sold. The company DivX Inc.. also owns a codec based on H.264 standard, leading to the videos in HD.

According to a press release , Sonic buys DivX "to develop technologies that enable retailers, online services, Hollywood studios and electronics manufacturers and wireless distribution of high quality videos on the Internet.