This aquisition is not a great exit for UStream, that was valued at $150M in 2010, but an exit none the less. I doubt the founders or employees would see as much of the $130M as they would have hoped, due to a massive $62M VC investment being in place... but still likely a much better outcome then if the company would have had to slowly wind down. (The investment structure of UStream is a bit complicated, but this article summarizes well why the amount is likely very close to this number <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gigaom.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;12&#x2F;09&#x2F;ustream-softbank-funding-collapse&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gigaom.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;12&#x2F;09&#x2F;ustream-softbank-funding-colla...</a>).<p>In 2011 the company rebooted itself to a B2B direction - see 
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;this-once-red-hot-startup-had-its-funding-pulled-because-of-its-xxx-ceo-2012-1?IR=T" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;this-once-red-hot-startup-had...</a>. This direction has only been a modest success. For a bootstrapped company it would have been completely fine to go on like that indefinitely, but for a VC investment heavy one, this - or any other - sale must have been in the making since the hopes of an IPO have clearly disappeared.<p>One thing the article doesn&#x27;t mention is that this aquisition makes a lot of sense for IBM. They get access to a lot of businesses who host their internal video streaming on UStream, like Facebook (company update videos all running on it). Also the main UStream engineering office is in Budapest, Hungary, where there is a large IBM office as well, so that will make integration smoother.<p>UStream employees who joined to disrupt the startup consumer video space a couple years back - welcome to IBM. I hope you&#x27;ve gotten some handsome payouts or golden handcuffs - and congratulations.