Parallax Capital Partners and StepStone Group to Acquire DivX

SAN DIEGO, CA – Mar 31, 2014: Parallax Capital Partners (“Parallax”) and StepStone Group announced today they have signed a definitive agreement to acquire DivX LLC and its subsidiaries, including the MainConcept entities, from Rovi Corporation for $75 million in a combination of cash and additional deferred contingent payments. San Diego based Karmel Capital assisted DivX management in the transaction. DivX is a leading provider of advanced end to end solutions that enable a superior high quality video experience on virtually any device or platform. 

Based in San Diego CA with operations in Russia, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea, DivX counts 200 million plus users of its proven video playback offerings on board over 1 billion devices. DivX is a pioneer in creating and delivering technologies that allow media customers to access quality content across the entire range of network conditions common in today’s multi-screen lifestyle.

Last year DivX introduced an end to end HEVC solution to accelerate the adoption of the latest video compression standard enabling highly efficient 4K Ultra HD content on a variety of devices. The new HEVC solution won a series of Best in Class awards at the 2014 CES in Las Vegas, NV. HEVC compression can reduce bandwidth usage for video distribution up to 50% according to recent benchmarks. 

James Hale, Managing Partner Parallax Capital Partners commented, “DivX has an established leadership position in the digital video market place widely recognized for their expertise and innovation driven by a strong management and delivery team. We are excited to help author the company’s next chapter as a premier supplier of innovative answers for content providers, OTT (Over-The-Top) delivery, service providers, multi-screen 4K/Ultra HD playback, live IP based content delivery and more.”

“The StepStone and Parallax teams recognize the unique value of the DivX and Main Concept businesses in the strategic landscape offering a complete solution,” said Dr Kanaan Jemili DivX CEO “We are enormously excited to have such a strong group of investment partners with us as DivX leads the way to a better more seamless consumer video experience in the future.” 

DivX will be exhibiting at the NAB 2014 in Las Vegas, NV April 7-10 in booth SU-9110, Attendees will have the opportunity to view live demonstrations of the company’s end to end solution powering the creation, protected delivery and multi- screen playback of next generation video, including 4K content using the new compression standard HEVC. 

About DivX
DivX is a leading provider of next-generation digital video technologies for Over-The-Top services from content preparation, to protected delivery and multi-screen playback of high-quality video across consumer electronics devices and mobile platforms. DivX, along with its subsidiary MainConcept, is accelerating the adoption of the HEVC/H.265 video standard across the video supply chain with solutions for 3rd party software integration, transcoding applications, and protected playback on consumer electronics devices. The MainConcept industry-leading SDKs provide an extensive library of digital video components, from industry standard codecs to support for next generation video standards as well as support for professional camera formats. MainConcept SDKs enable software developers to integrate video and audio support into their applications, services or environments.

About Parallax Capital Partners
Parallax Capital Partners, LLC (parallaxcap.com), is a private equity firm focused on acquiring and operating application software and related services companies. Since 1999, Parallax has acquired over 20 companies. Parallax’s previous and current portfolio companies generate over $1.5 billion of annual revenues and have provided significant returns for its investors, partners and employees. Parallax has built an exceptional track record of transitioning divisions, subsidiaries and product lines into successful stand-alone entities. 

About StepStone Group
StepStone Group LP (stepstonellc.com), is a global private markets firm overseeing more than $60 billion of private capital allocations, including approximately $11 billion of assets under management. StepStone creates customized portfolios for the world’s most sophisticated investors using a highly disciplined research-focused approach that prudently integrates fund, secondary, mezzanine and co-investments. StepStone has over 110 professionals, which includes 18 Partners, located on three continents. StepStone is an active investor in all private markets strategies, including buyout, credit, venture, distressed, mezzanine, energy, infrastructure and real assets in all major geographies, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.