Just how many video streaming does a social network need? Well apparently at least two if rumors swirling around Twitter and its reported acquisition of start-up Periscope are publicly confirmed by either of the players involved.
One report claims Twitter acquired live video stream app developer Periscope (whose technology is in closed beta apparently) a month ago. Periscope is believed to be developing the app for smartphones.
The beta trial reportedly involved Twitter leaders as well as board directors including Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. There's no indication from Twitter or Periscope as yet on official price paid with various media outlets stating the cost could be as low as $50 million or as high as $100 million. One notable media outlet claims the price was "slightly less than $100 million" and paid with cash and a bit of stock.
Periscope barely raised a few million in an initial seed round.
Twitter purchased Vine, a video looping service, in 2012, which has become a popular video app for Twitter users wanting to make short video content.
According to a job listing post, Periscope is based in San Francisco and describes its mission as one that "lets you see the world in real time through someone else's eyes. Where would you explore, if you could teleport somewhere and be in somebody else's shoes?"
The job post, which lists two developer jobs and an operations position, also notes that "You'll be able to learn more about Periscope later this year. Please reach out to us if you're interested in joining the team!"
The iOS engineer job opportunity notes these required skills: Software Engineering, Objective C, iOS Development, Product Development, iPhone, iPhone / iPad Development, Mobile Application Development.
The video systems engineer role requires the following skillset: Software Engineering, Video, C, Video Decoding, Video Streaming, Streaming Video, Video Encoding, RTMP, Multimedia Protocols (Http, Rtsp, Rtp, Mp4).
The operations engineer role is described as follows: Operations Engineer will architect, maintain, and scale technical infrastructure that drives a consumer mobile application. The right candidate would be somebody with systems engineering experience who has architected and managed highly scaled environments for a growing product (and team). Experience building high-availability, fault-tolerant, distributed systems with IaaS providers is ideal. As this candidate will be fulfilling one of the first dedicated roles in this capacity, it is important that they can contribute both as an individual engineer, and as a leader that can help build a team. This is a unique position for the right candidate to shape the technology choices and define the operations roadmap necessary to support an emergent, ambitious product.
- Working knowledge of Unix/Linux
- Must have experience working with AWS
- Familiarity with Docker or other Linux Container technologies
- Experience with clustered infrastructure (preferably but not limited to CoreOS)
- Working knowledge of Bash and other scripting languages
- Basic knowledge of common network protocols (TCP/UDP/etc.)
- Logging Architecture
- Monitoring and Alerting Architecture
- Configuration management and Server Provisioning
Periscope was founded by Kayvon Beykpour and Joseph Bernstein, who both founded Terriblyclever Design, which was acquired by Blackboard in 2009. The current team, per the job posting, lists four staffers: Nils Rocine, Tyler Hansen, Aaron Wasserman and Michael Edward. Wasserman's bio notes he was a partner at Terriblyclever Design
Periscope's investors include Scott Belsky, Gaurav Jain, Nick Weaver and Rebecca Kaden.
