Cloud-based file manager service Box announced that it has acquired Y-Combinator-backed Streem, with the entire Streem team joining Box.
Streem was purchased by Box with a combination of cash and shares. However, the exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Box, which was launched in 2005, has made a name for itself in the enterprise cloud storage and file sharing industry amid intense competition from giants such as Google and Microsoft. However, the company recently has been losing money, with a profitable year still unclear.
Box filed for an IPO in March, but has not yet gone public.
The company's acquisition of Streem was announced by Box CEO Aaron Levie at the company's official blog. The purchase will allow Box to further expand its offerings with the multitude of features that Streem's services have.
"Streem has developed amazing technology that allows you to mount a cloud drive onto your computer - making documents, presentations, videos and files available to you without the limitations of your local hard-disk, effectively turning the cloud into an 'unlimited'drive," Levie wrote.
Streem specialized in media files of large sizes, developing new technology so that users will be able to access these files through streaming. Streem developed StreemFS, which is a file system that makes the company's service act as if it were just any other local drive that is attached to the computer of the user.
In addition, Streem users are not required to keep copies of their files on local machines to be eventually sync'd with the files on the cloud. Streem keeps one copy in the cloud, and then streams it to the devices where the user is looking to access the file.
Streem also developed an on-the-fly video transcoder, which adjusts the quality of videos depending on the user's Internet connection speed. The videos can be played regardless of their file format through Streem's services.
Users would think that they would experience slowness in accessing the files uploaded to Streem's cloud service. However, that is not true at all. The company claims that, using custom streaming and buffering methods, users are able to access their uploaded files as quickly as if they were accessing files on their local machine.
Streem's specialty of media files will be very important for the customers of Box in data-intensive industries such as Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing, and others. Providing customers from these industries with instant access to data with huge file sizes will be a very valuable service. In addition, because the media files are located at a specific location in the cloud, there is more control and protection of the data.
Streem accounts will be migrated to Box, with the logistics of the transfer to be released at a later time.
