Wowza Announces Acquisition of Flowplayer

Expands Wowza’s European presence and accelerates innovation amid continued investment in integrated live and video on demand (VOD) platform

Wowza, the leading live and video on demand (VOD) platform powering more than 6,000 customers globally, announced today that it has acquired Flowplayer, a Sweden-based video player specialist. The acquisition was made in partnership with Clearhaven Partners (“Clearhaven”), a US-based private equity firm that focuses on software and technology, following its 2021 investment in Wowza. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition comes amid a period of significant growth and product development for Wowza. Since launching Wowza Video in April 2022, more than 1,000 customers have trusted the integrated live and video on demand (VOD) platform to power video applications for their millions of end-viewers. By acquiring Flowplayer, Wowza adds enhanced player functionality, a lightweight code base and a rich plugin library, and expands its global team.

“Wowza simplifies the complexities of video for organizations at any scale with solutions designed for reliability, performance and extensibility,” said David Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder at Wowza. “Integrating with Flowplayer to add key features, such as monetization and ad insertion, reinforces our brand promise to be the solution customers start with and the partner they scale with.”

Wowza has been a pioneer in streaming video for more than 15 years, starting with the initial launch of Wowza Streaming Engine, which now has more than 35,000 implementations.  Today, Wowza Video is the preeminent cloud-based video platform that delivers an easy-to-start, customizable solution for live and VOD workflows. This empowers customers to utilize full API and SDK support to power extensible solutions, which are underpinned by Wowza’s SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and digital rights management (DRM) integrations.

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“Video on demand and live streaming is a mission critical part of our business–Wowza delivers solutions that just work,” said Dominik Schreiner, Head of Livestream at FomF GmbH (Forum für medizinische Fortbildung), a leading European-based provider of online medical education. “Component vendors have lacked the reliability and extensibility we need to ensure our customers’ events succeed at scale. Wowza continues to demonstrate their commitment to innovation and the growth of its customers and has become the trusted video partner for our business.”

Flowplayer launched as one of the first video players on the web. Today, its ultra-lightweight, fast-loading player has become a critical tool for driving website  search rankings. Its extensible architecture aligns with Wowza’s customization capabilities, allowing Flowplayer to seamlessly integrate with Wowza Video and Wowza Streaming Engine. Wowza’s acquisition of Flowplayer also paves the way for new features and capabilities, such as expanded analytics and enhanced player configurability.

“We have been early adopters of Wowza’s backend technologies and have long respected Wowza as a market leader in the evolving video streaming ecosystem. We are very excited to accelerate product development to tackle real customer challenges together, pushing the envelope of what is possible,”  said Henrik Lovén, CEO at Flowplayer. “Our customers will benefit from even more compelling functionality, quicker innovation, and greater support.”

The growing demand for video across every industry validates Wowza’s integrated platform and partnership strategy. This alignment, combined with the success of Wowza’s customers, has driven more than 50% ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) growth annually over the past two years. Wowza’s customers include NASA, SONY, Facebook, Jewelry TV, University of Oregon and thousands more. With the acquisition, Wowza welcomes L’OREAL, Ringier Axel Springer, Amedia, among many more Flowplayer customers.

“As software investors, we believe in the power of video. Our investment in Wowza was based on that premise combined with Wowza’s highly differentiated software-first approach to video,” commented Michelle Noon, Wowza Chairperson, and Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Clearhaven. “We’re delighted to support Wowza’s continued commitment to partnership and innovation through Wowza Video and the Flowplayer acquisition.”

With the acquisition of Flowplayer, Wowza expands its international footprint by adding offices in Stockholm and Helsinki, while maintaining its existing locations in Berlin and Lakewood, Colorado (global headquarters).

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