Revver is acquired amid spike in interest

Employees of video-sharing site Revver said they breathed a sigh of
relief Thursday after management informed them that the company had
been acquired by LiveUniverse, a little-known online entertainment
network.

Representatives from both companies declined to comment, but two
Revver employees and an executive at a company that had inquired about
bidding on Revver said managers there had informed them the sale was
done. The blog NewTeeVee was first to report the acquisition.

In a report earlier this month, CNET News.com cited sources who said
the beleaguered Revver was asking for between $300,000 and $500,000
and the assumption of the company's debt, which the sources said was
in the $1 million range. Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Bessemer Venture
Partners were among those that invested more than $12 million into
Revver.

News.com also reported that talks between LiveUniverse, owned by
MySpace.com co-founder Brad Greenspan, had stalled last month over the
issue of debt. A Revver employee, who asked to remain anonymous
because he is not authorized to speak for the company, confirmed that
Thursday.

The employee added that negotiations began to pick up again after the
story about Revver's troubles appeared. That triggered, according to
the employee, a flurry of inquiries from other companies. Among those
who called was VideoJug, an online video destination and production
company.

Doug Kamin, senior vice president of marketing at VideoJug, said
Thursday that he contacted executives about the possibility of making
a bid after reading about Revver's woes.

"At those prices, we thought Revver would be a good deal," Kamin said.
"I'm betting lots of others thought the same thing."

On Thursday Revver called Kamin to tell him that Revver's management
had decided to go with the "original bidder."

Revver's staff, which is half the size it was in 2006, was ecstatic to
hear that the company was saved and that they would not be broken up
or moved, according to two Revver employees. The status of the
company's CEO, Kevin Wells, was unclear.

For a year, the company had weathered management shake-ups that
included the departures of all three founders. Employees had witnessed
some of the Web's best-known video producers, such as Ze Frank and
Lonelygirl15, abandon the site. Revver's audience was dwarfed by
YouTube's and other video-sharing front-runners.

More recently, rumors circulated the Web that the company was running
short of cash, according to the Revver employees.

"Everyone is just really happy that this happened," the Revver
employee said. "We always knew that the company had great technology
and a strong following of creators. We knew we had value."