Video API and infrastructure platform Zype today announced it has acquired MAZ Systems, a leading OTT app publishing platform for connected TV and mobile devices. With MAZ, Zype adds no-code OTT TV and mobile app automation to help enterprise video publishers create streaming experiences for the billions of people who watch streaming video every day. The combination of the companies brings Zype to more than 80 employees on four continents. The company now supports over 900 video apps and playout channels available to over 2 billion people worldwide.
"Streaming video content is now essential for enterprises to engage audiences anywhere, anytime and on any device," said Ed Laczynski, CEO of Zype. "Adding MAZ's best-in-breed TV and mobile app publishing and automation will help enterprise video publishers design cross-platform apps from a single configuration. Our research shows that 92% of organizations underestimate the amount of manual work required to create and manage video products, and we are excited to add these capabilities to better connect the world's streaming video and viewers."
With MAZ, Zype now supports automated app publishing across all major mobile, tablet, connected TV, web browsers, and gaming console devices, including iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung Tizen, Vizio, LG, Android TV, and Xbox.
According to MAZ systems CEO, Shikha Arora, "Our philosophy for the acquisition was to extend our capabilities beyond the OTT apps and mobile space, providing a deeper and more robust set of solutions to both MAZ and Zype's customers, and most importantly to invest in innovation in the video ecosystem with a larger team of engineers, product, and sales experts who share a common set of values and goals." Arora will join the Zype leadership team and continue leading the MAZ group and help Zype's innovation strategy going forward.
The acquisition demonstrates Zype's commitment to an open and connected video ecosystem with its modular approach. Video publishers can leverage the Zype API and MAZ automation along with their choice of online video platform, encoding, CDN, or video player, and integrate with their choice of ad-serving, payment, and data management platforms.
"As a long-time Zype customer and video publisher, I'm excited to see MAZ join the Zype product family," says Kristen Gray, President of Konami Cross Media NY. "Enterprise content publishers will benefit from access to more endpoints, with integrated advertising and subscription connectivity along with Zype's massive scale video streaming capabilities."
MAZ customers will continue to have access to all products and services, in addition to Zype's full-stack video API and infrastructure, including Zype's Playout, CRM, and CMS solutions.
[Editor's note: This is a lightly edited press release.]