Yahoo acquires Maven Networks

Yahoo announced Tuesday it snapped up online video platform provider Maven Networks, in a $160 million deal.

What makes the transaction particularly interesting is it comes at a time when Yahoo is butting heads with Microsoft, which launched a $44.6 billion unsolicited bid for the company at the start of the month. As the companies fight over Yahoo's proper valuation, now add to the mix the Maven Networks acquisition as another factoid.

Yahoo and Maven were apparently in merger talks long before the Microsoft bid, with the deal reportedly on the verge of getting inked on Jan. 31 or Feb. 1, according to reports. Then add to the excitement Microsoft's mega-billion-dollar buyout off on Feb. 1, and it's understandable there would be a slight distraction to the Yahoo-Maven deal, wouldn't you say?

Nonetheless, the Maven deal moved forward and here's what Yahoo hopes to get out of it:

Yahoo is aiming to bolster its video content syndication and video advertising capabilities to publishers and advertisers. Maven develops video publishing platforms designed to allow publishers to dish up videos to consumers through a range of media players, easy-to-use media management and workflow technologies.

Yahoo is seeking to meld its library of licensed video content, as well as its relationships with advertisers and Web publishers, with Maven's technology to manage and distribute online video to such media company titans as Fox News, Sony BMG and Gannett.

Maven will retain its operations in Cambridge, Mass., and operate as a Yahoo wholly owned subsidiary. Or, perhaps, one day, a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary...