OVGuide Acquires Live Matrix, Sanjay Reddy Appointed CEO

OVGuide, the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to online video, today announced the acquisition of Live Matrix, the first guide to live and scheduled events on the Web. As part of the deal, OVGuide named Live Matrix co-founder and CEO Sanjay Reddy its new CEO. The combined offering creates the definitive online guide to on-demand and scheduled video content.

The acquisition and appointment of Reddy heralds an exciting new direction for OVGuide, which helps users find the very best video content on the Web, including free movies, TV shows, anime, sports, celebrity and viral videos, at no charge. OVGuide will now provide guidance during the entire life cycle of an online video – when the video is upcoming, live and on-demand. This is a unique proposition for users, publishers and advertisers in a world of increasing online video content availability and consumption.

Live Matrix will continue operation as a stand-alone site focused on live, scheduled events, including video and audio webcasts, live chats, limited-time sales, conferences, product launches, games and contests, and more.

Apart from cross-linking contextually relevant scheduled and on-demand results on OVGuide.com and LiveMatrix.com, the two companies will soon integrate their databases and deliver a unified offering that covers upcoming, live and on-demand content available through syndication across third party sites and connected devices.

Reddy succeeds Peter Lee as CEO of OVGuide. Lee will remain on the board and resume his full time responsibilities as a partner at Baroda Ventures, the venture capital firm that is the primary investor in OVGuide. Terms of the all-stock deal were not disclosed.

Baroda Ventures founder and OVGuide chairman David Bohnett believes Reddy has the experience and foresight to build on the success of OVGuide.

“Sanjay Reddy is a visionary, and a veteran of new media -- a creative thinker and proven leader who will help OVGuide expand its digital footprint in the video entertainment world and grow its already formidable user base,” said Bohnett. “We’re on the verge of a revolution in online video content. Even as consumption continues to grow rapidly, consumers are often unaware of sources and availability of content. Publishers can’t reach audiences fragmented by time and platform, and advertisers can’t properly leverage the Web to reach audiences with contextually relevant messages in a timely manner. This acquisition puts Sanjay Reddy and OVGuide in the best position to deliver the solution we all need.”

OVGuide, created in 2006, continues to be an innovator in video content search and discovery on the Web. It is currently the leader in traffic among independent video sites, enjoying more than 12 million monthly unique visitors, and over 20 million searches per month.

Publicly launched in Sept. 2010, Live Matrix is the first comprehensive online guide for all scheduled events on the Web, with over 4 million events tracked across over 400 channels and indexes, with average of 300,000 events weekly. Live Matrix was the winner of the Most Promising Media Concept award presented by NBC’s Peacock Equity Fund at the 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in New York City.

"The fit here is unique, and represents a great opportunity for us all," Reddy said. "Starting with founder Dale Bock, and subsequent CEO Peter Lee, the entire OVGuide team has created the largest independent online video guidance portal and the most comprehensive database with over 60 million video results. We are seeing geometric growth in online video production, and wide availability across multiple distribution platforms. This makes the need for video guidance and discovery paramount. We are well positioned to be everyone’s go-to-source for online video content, whether it’s live, on-demand, or scheduled for the future. I look forward to working with the team to combine the audience, data and distribution platforms of OVGuide and Live Matrix and create a valuable service for users, content publishers and advertisers alike."

Prior to co-founding Live Matrix with serial entrepreneur Nova Spivack, Reddy was the head of business development, strategy and M&A for Gemstar-TV Guide International, where he oversaw the public auction process that resulted in Gemstar’s sale to Macrovision in 2008 for $2.8 billion.

Reddy joined Gemstar-TV Guide in 2004 with broad media and technology experience, having previously served as a vice president in the M&A group at Salomon Smith Barney in New York; vice president of corporate development for Covad Communications, a publicly traded DSL company based in Silicon Valley; and a principal in startups in the animation and music industries.

Reddy is a digital media expert who has advised a range of new media companies including My Damn Channel, Pixsy, TVersity and BuddyTV. He also has served as a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences National Primetime Emmy Awards Committee and on its Interactive Media Peer Group's executive committee. Reddy earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and an MBA from UCLA.

About OVGuide

OVGuide is the Web’s most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to online video. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the privately-held company is backed by Baroda Ventures, whose founder David Bohnett was also the founder of GeoCities, which went public in 1998 and was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in 1999.

OVGuide categorizes and organizes online video content from over 6,000 sources, facilitating the user discovery of, and guidance to, both short and long form videos via a comprehensive database and proprietary search engine. Users can search for specific video content within a category such as Movies or TV, or across all categories. OVGuide categorizes and organizes more than online destinations, offering both short- and long-form videos integrated into a directory and search engine that facilitates user discovery and guidance of online videos from over 6,000 sources. Users can search for specific video content within a category or across all categories. Content discovery features include editor's pick videos, content browsing tools, movie/TV browse tools and listings of real-time keyword searches. The site receives more than 12 million unique visitors per month.

To learn more, visit http://www.ovguide.com

About Live Matrix

Livematrix.com is a full content calendar for live and scheduled events on the Web. It was the first guide to link users to any online event that has a start time and can be attended online: audio and video webcasts, live chats, limited-time sales and auctions, conferences, product launches, games and contests, events in virtual worlds and more.

Live Matrix enables the “Scheduled Web.” Like what TV Guide does for television audiences, Live Matrix ensures that consumers never miss their favorite online programming.

To learn more, visit: http://www.livematrix.com

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