With video search set to be the next big growth area BLNX have the software the likes of Microsoft, Google and NewsCorp would love to have.

In fact BLNX have done deals with most of these, the most recent being the UtargetFox deal which has been reported in the USA but not RNS'd in the UK.

Alexa rankings confirm the continued growth in usage as its viral effect spreads:-

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/blinkx.com

The ITN RNS confirms blnx is the best in the market and is growing fast:-

Leading News Organization ITN Extends Advertising Deal with blinkx Based on Proven Campaign Success




blinkx Selected to Power Advertising across ITN Website and Syndication Partner Sites




SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - July 2, 2008 - blinkx, the world's largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that it has won an extension contract that will augment the scope of its advertising partnership with ITN, one of the world's leading news and multimedia content companies. Under the terms of the new agreement, ITN will use AdHoc, blinkx's patented contextual advertising platform for online TV and video, to serve advertisements on the ITN website and its syndication partner sites, including Bebo.




Through AdHoc, ITN has already been effectively monetizing its premium news content on the blinkx.com network for over six months. During this time, ITN achieved a significantly better return, greater search volume, and higher monetization through blinkx than through other syndication partners.




AdHoc uses blinkx's patented speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology to understand video content more thoroughly and effectively than any other service today, and can therefore dynamically place the most pertinent advertising against it. The AdHoc platform offers media companies and advertisers a unique value proposition -- video advertising which combines the emotive power of TV promotion, with the relevance and utility of contextual search advertising.




The confluence of ITN's premium TV content, blinkx's extensive syndication network, and AdHoc's uniquely powerful targeting capabilities was a formula for success. By extending its partnership with blinkx, ITN aims to achieve similar returns by leveraging the AdHoc platform to deliver contextually relevant video advertising on its own website and across its distribution partner sites.




'We're thrilled to be broadening our relationship with ITN,' said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx. 'News content is one of the most popular categories of online video and there's clearly a tremendous opportunity for monetization. The success of our partnership with ITN is evidence that the blinkx AdHoc platform is a uniquely powerful solution for online video advertising today.'




'We've been delighted with the results of our partnership with blinkx and are looking forward to implementing the AdHoc technology on our site,' said Nicholas Wheeler, managing director, ITN On. 'blinkx AdHoc has proven that it can achieve significant monetization of our content, effective marketing for advertisers and, most importantly, a useful, non-disruptive experience for our audience.'




As a pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the most effective way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 350 partners and 26 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more, blinkx uses advanced speech recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches.

Suranga Chandratillake,Blinkx founder and CEO,will be presenting today in San Francisco at the RBC Markets Technology Media and Communications Conference in a panel on online video.
I understand that he holds a lot of share options which are exercisable at the floatation price (45p).So he will be keen to reach that price

Interesting move!





BLINKX PROPOSES ACQUISITION OF MIVA FOR $1.20 PER SHARE IN CASH

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - AUGUST 8, 2008 - blinkx plc ('blinkx') (LSE AIM: BLNX) confirms that it has delivered a letter to the Board of Directors and CEO of MIVA, Inc. ('MIVA') (NASDAQ: MIVA) in which blinkx proposes to acquire MIVA for a cash consideration of $1.20 per share.

MIVA is a Nasdaq-listed digital media company. It describes itself as having two focuses to its business: owning and operating a growing portfolio of consumer destination sites and interest-specific toolbars, through its MIVA Direct division; and running a third-party contextual Pay-Per-Click ad network focused on key vertical sectors, through its MIVA Media division. MIVA, Inc. operates across North America and Europe.

blinkx believes the proposal is highly attractive for MIVA shareholders. blinkx's proposal represents a 54% premium above the closing price of MIVA common stock of $0.78 on August 7, 2008, and a 36% premium over the average closing price for the one month prior to August 7, 2008.

Commenting on the proposal, blinkx CEO and Founder Suranga Chandratillake said: 'Our recent strong momentum in the business, and our positioning in the area of performance-based advertising which has shown itself to be robust in the current climate, has encouraged us to consider opportunities to accelerate our growth. We're excited about the opportunities presented by a combination with MIVA. blinkx has been developing advanced monetization technologies, which we are now ready to introduce aggressively into the market. This transaction would enable us to accelerate the penetration of these more advanced technologies into the marketplace over the current planned organic approach. We hope that the Board of MIVA will appreciate the uniqueness of this opportunity.'

i hope usa does not prove to be fatal to BLNX as has proved to be the case for far too many formerly-successful companies who have jumped in there.

cynic isn't BLNX an american company?

always thought it was UK ..... am pretty sure they have an office in wardour street or similar

BLNX is dual nationality HQ's in San Fran and London. Generally considered to be a US company although the technology originated in Cambridge University.

Will this revalue the current Blnx sp if the aquisition is successful? $1.20 offer equates about 60p per share. The company value should increase?
Just a thought?

the market obviously likes the deal as sp is now 30.5 bid having been as low as 27.5 earlier today

Maybe its share price is being pumped up by certain devious persons

I am sure BLNX know what they are doing, I hope so anyway! MIVA's accounts don't make particularly good reading. Thay are available at
http://ir.miva.com/reports.cfm

I note that the latest results are due out on Monday however, so there may be an improvement. Having said that, combined with BLNX, there could well be a major transformation. Seems to be the right way forward to me and if BLNX are able to pay for MIVA without raising capital, what's to loose?!

Also if they get a nasdaq listing out of this does that mean blnx can go into an isa?
Miva has a listing.

sp closed nicely up--lets hope for some good press comments over the w/end.

moneyplus.. hold the gains of the week will do for me.

If you ask me,nobody has yet though ,Blinkx is going ballistic!
A 1,000% increase in traffic to the end of May,and a 50% increase on that in June alone.Obviously,the number of hits is going to translate into increased revenue,therefore break even much sooner than expected.

Major shareholders in Blinkx
F&C asset Management 11%
Autonomy Corporation plc 9.9%
William Blair & Co 9.5%
Michael Lynch 8.6%
H B O S plc 7.2%
J.P. Morgan Asset Management (UK) 6%
FMR LLC 5.5%
Fidelity International 3.8%
Also,the way I see it, with all the deals and such coming through,shorting the stock has become a much less attractive proposition.

Miva board has rejected the offer. despite a miva director being on the board of blnx-this is a very quick rejection of this morning's publicly announced offer maybe they want more money. I hope this doesn't knock back our welcome rise today in next week's trading.

moneyplus,,i bet the sp will be knocked back more than fridays rise,any little chance to screw the pi and they will be on it...would have been good to hold fridays rise, but now have my doubts, but we will find out soon enough....all part of the rollercoaster ride.IMO

MIVA 2nd quarter results are due out this Monday,11th August

I haven't researched it, but are you sure a Director is on both boards? Presumably non-Exec Dir? Otherwise surely that would be a conflict of interests??? He would have to get good value for the investors of both companies which seems difficult to achieve.
If you all think sp will get knocked back, due to possible higher price being demanded by Miva, why not take profit & buy back in. First stop would be 28/29p imo, followed by a nasty drop to 22/23p. But if the big boys are still interested in the technology, the up side is still as great as it's always been.

article in the Times today saying blnx is the UK -youtube and has overtaken Google video search in uk. Mark Opzoomer is a director of Miva and Blnx don't know if non exec. but he surely must have been in on the discussions. If the miva results are dire on Mon and they have rejected the bid their sp will fall---maybe blnx will go straight to the shareholders. on the other hand the rejection says the bid cannot be acceptable as constituted--leaving the door open??