Is LiveUniverse Buying Revver?

Written by A. L. Friedman

Tuesday, January 8. 2008 at 01:50 PM EST Post a comment

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A credible source says LiveUniverse is buying the video sharing site Revver in a stock swap. The deal will be announced next week.

Los Angeles-based LiveUniverse is run by MySpace founder Brad Greenspan. Though its flagship site is the somewhat obscure LiveVideo, the company would add Revver to its network of video sites. LiveUniverse isn't exactly forthcoming about what the other in the network are, but screen shot of the video site Glumbert appears on the company page. And, Greenspan mentioned taking a 30 percent stake in LiveLeak in his blog. LiveUniverse also bought video search site Flurl in October 2006.

Content creators like Revver for its payouts, and it's no coincidence that Revver's video players show up on the homepages for many popular Web shows. Still, like many video sharing sites, the company is struggling to find a successful business model. Video expert Kevin Nalts recently told NewTeeVee that the market perceives Revver as "undifferentiated middleware."

LiveUniverse wants to build its network and its advertising reach. Revver, on the other hand, has to answer to its investors, who chipped in two rounds totaling about $13 million in the last couple of years. Sounds like a match.

Neither company returned calls about the deal.

Update: A spokesperson for Revver responded via email.

"We're constantly pursuing content and business partnerships, and that activity invariably seems to generate acquisition conversations and rumors. We're excited that our egalitarian business model creates that kind of buzz, but if we commented on all the rumors, we wouldn't have time to focus on our core business -- which is built on sharing revenue with all video creators and syndicators who use Revver."