We received this note from Google today regarding the On2 product that we used to use to convert video. Google purchased On2 for over $100MM last summer.

At the time, we figured they were purchasing On2 for the patent portfolio. I guess we were right. They recently announced the new Google webm video format, based on the On2 VP8 codec. And now they just killed every On2 product. No great loss, their video conversion software was pretty rough around the edges.

Dear Flix customer,

As of June 21st, 2010 we are discontinuing sales of licenses for On2 Flix Pro, On2 Flix Standard, On2 Flix Exporter, On2 Flix PowerPlayers, On2 Flix Live, On2 Flix SDK for DirectShow and Live, and On2 Flix Publisher. Google will no longer sell or support these products.

FINAL ON2 FLIX PRODUCT INSTALLERS

Our Flix licensing server will go offline permanently on December 1, 2010.

IMPORTANT: We have created final On2 Flix Standard, Pro and Exporter product installers that do not verify license keys over the Internet. We strongly recommend that all On2 Flix customers download the final On2 installer for the product you are using and save a backup copy of the installer. These installers will go offline on December 1, 2010.

WILDFORM FLIX DESKTOP SALES AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT TRANSITION

Under a licensing agreement with Google, Wildform is assuming development and sales of Flix Pro, Standard, and Exporter under the Wildform Flix brand. We currently expect that Wildform will continue selling and improving Flix, and Wildform has already added support for the new WebM (http://webmproject.org) open media format to Flix. For more information visit http://www.wildform.com.

Wildform will not sell or develop On2 Flix PowerPlayers, On2 Flix Live, On2 Flix SDK for DirectShow, or On2 Flix Publisher.

Support tickets from On2 Flix Pro, Flix Standard and Flix Exporter customers must be opened through Wildform at http://wildform.com/eTicket/. Although we expect Wildform to provide reasonable support for these products for a period of six months beginning on June 21st, 2010, please be aware that the terms of support for each such product are governed by the product license or customer agreement associated with the product.

Sincerely,

John Luther
Product Manager, Google/On2

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 3:41 pm and is filed under General, Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.