NaviSite Gets Into Streaming Media

Hosting company NaviSite (a CMGI company) announced the acquisition of ClickHear, Inc., a privately-held streaming media services company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

ClickHear ( http://www.clickhear.com) will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of NaviSite (http://www.navisite.com) effective immediately and will allow Navisite to offer Web hosting and streaming in one package.

NaviSite also announced agreements with Activate.net (http://www.activate.net) (another CMGI company) and iBEAM (http://www.ibeam.com) to offer Activate.net's streaming media offerings and iBEAM's content delivery solutions.

"Hosting and streaming have traditionally been viewed as two separate disciplines. As streaming is fast-becoming a critical element of many online businesses, NaviSite's goal is to bring the two together for a more integrated approach to e-business," said Joel Rosen, CEO of NaviSite. "Combining NaviSite's existing skilled technical team and high-performance infrastructure with ClickHear's expert professional services staff, Activate's streaming services for Internet-based corporate communications and iBEAM's streaming media distribution technology will enable NaviSite to offer existing and new customers an end-to-end streaming solution."

ClickHear has produced more than 450 streaming media events and its customer list includes Anheuser-Busch, Digital Club Network, Evoke (formerly VStream), iBEAM, MP3.com, Samsung Semiconductor and StarMedia Broadband.

"This is an exciting time to become part of a fast-moving company like NaviSite," said Troy Snyder, CEO of ClickHear who will assume the role of Group Manager, Streaming Media for NaviSite. "From our experience, streaming is fast becoming a primary requirement for e-business, and the combined strengths of NaviSite and ClickHear should allow us to provide complete solutions for customers' hosting and streaming needs."