Sony Lands Grouper for $65 million

Filed in archive Companies on August 25, 2006

While I bash Sony for their colossal ethical lapses (1, 2, 3), they also deserve credit for their strategic vision (social networking, Mylo portable player with WiFi and Skype)

Sony continues the latter tradition with the $65 million purchase of Grouper. Grouper launched as personal p2p file sharing software that enabled users to share files with friends. The company then focused on using the software to upload video to its web site for public sharing.

Grouper.com claims it is "the second largest independent video community." Sony's acquisition gives it a new channel to distribute its content that includes a video sharing web site and software for convenient video uploading, as well as sharing and downloading.