Synacor

Synacor Inc. is a technology and services company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It provides managed portals and apps, advertising, email, authentication, and OTT video services. The company was founded in 1998 as Chek.com and changed its name to Synacor in 2001.[4] Himesh Bhise currently serves as the CEO[5] and Tim Heasley currently serves as the CFO.[6] Beyond Buffalo, the company has offices in Boston, Dallas, London, New York City, Ottawa, Pune, Singapore, and Tokyo.[7] In 2012, Synacor became a public company (NASDAQ: SYNC) with an initial public offering (IPO) of $5.00 per share.[8] In 2015, Synacor acquired Zimbra, an open source email, calendaring, and collaboration software suite.[9] In the same year, Synacor acquired NimbleTV.[10] In 2016, Synacor displaced Yahoo! as the portal provider for AT&T[11] and subsequently lost this business back to Yahoo! only 3 years later in 2019. Synacor also provides authentication for HBO Go.[12]

Synacor Inc.
FormerlyChek.com, MyPersonal
TypePublic
NASDAQ: SYNC
Russell Microcap Index component
IndustryTechnology
Founded1998 (1998) in Buffalo, New York, U.S.
FounderGeorge Chamoun
Headquarters
Buffalo, New York
,
U.S.
Key people
  • Himesh Bhise (CEO)
  • William Stuart (CFO)
Revenue US$127.4 million[1] (2016)
US$−9.2 million[1] (2016)
US$−10.7 million[1] (2016)
Total assets US$93.4 million[2] (2016)
Total equity US$39.6 million[2] (2016)
Number of employees
449[3] (2016)
Websitesynacor.com

History

In January 1998, George Chamoun and Darren Ascone, roommates at the University of Buffalo, founded Chek.com, a Buffalo-based email infrastructure provider.[13][14] It started as an affinity-branded free email provider, allowing users to create an email account at domains like Budweiser.com and Yankeesfan.net. Additionally, Chek.com provided a Business E-Communications product, allowing companies to outsource their email hosting to Chek.com, providing an outlet for businesses to maintain email and intranet systems internally. The stated aim of the outsourced email product was to allow smaller companies to present a professional image similar to larger, established companies.[15]

Chek.com was an early adopter of the LAMP technology stack and was a major supporter of the growing PHP community; Chek.com (and later, Synacor) hosted the official PHP website for a number of years prior to it being mirrored.[15] [16]

In 2000, Chek.com merged with MyPersonal, a San Francisco-based portal provider, to become Synacor.[4] After the merger, Synacor started offering an extended set of products geared towards ISPs, cable companies, and telecommunications. Synacor began by hosting emails; the first such ISP was Kmart. The new agreement would provide BlueLight ISP customers with access to a 'mybluelight'-branded portal and web-based email hosted by Synacor.[17]

In 2003, Synacor began to offer services to small and mid-size ISPs which allowed them to provide premium online content, similar to offerings by Yahoo at the time. Synacor claimed to manage complexities such as registration, rights management, and billing that customers experienced while operating their service.[18] This technology eventually became Synacor's TV Everywhere product line.[19] This technology also led Synacor to help shape the standards for Home-Based authentication through its long-standing participation in the Open Authentication Technology Committee (OATC) and Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).[20] Furthermore, Synacor's TV Everywhere authentication product helped contribute to Apple's SSO.[21]

In 2006, during Synacor's Series C round of funding, Walden International, Advantage Capital Partners, Crystal Internet Venture Funds, Mitsui Global Investment, Rand Capital, Intel Capital, and North Atlantic Capital were investors.[4] Synacor had originally filed an IPO in 2007 with Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns as underwriters; however, it withdrew from filing in October 2008.[22] A successful IPO was filed in November 2011 and priced at the beginning of 2012.[8]

In February of 2020, Synacor announced a merger with the Minnesota-based Qumu Corporation. As a part of the all-stock deal, Synacor shareholders would have held a 64% ownership of the merged entity, while Qumu investors would have held 36%. [23]. In June of 2020, the board of directors of both companies mutually agreed to terminate the merger prior to execution[24].

References
  1. "CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS from Synacor Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016". sec.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 31, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  2. "CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS from Synacor Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016". sec.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 31, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  3. "Synacor Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016". sec.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 31, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  4. "Chek.com". Crunchbase. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  5. "Himesh Bhise: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  6. "Synacor Executive Officers".
  7. "Synacor company profile". Craft Co. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  8. "SYNACOR, INC. (SYNC) IPO". Nasdaq. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  9. Nicastro, Dom. "Zimbra Acquired Again, This Time by Synacor". CMSWire.com. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  10. Spangler, Todd. "Synacor Acquires NimbleTV, Startup That Streamed Live TV Online". Variety. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  11. Holm, Erik. "Synacor Soars After Swiping AT&T Contract from Yahoo". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  12. Baumgartner, Jeff. "Synacor Nets HBO Go Authentication Deal". Multichannel. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  13. Miner, Dan. "Synacor founder George Chamoun will leave company later this year". Buffalo Business First. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  14. "Chek.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info". DomainTools. Retrieved July 17, 2017. Creation Date: 1997-12-05T05:00:00Z
  15. "[email protected]; E-mail Idea Started in College Students' Basement Evolves Into One of the Top". PR Newswire Association. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  16. "PHP: Thanks". The PHP Group. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  17. "Former Chek.com gets blue-light special". Buffalo Business First. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  18. Ali, Rafat. "Synacor to Re-sell Online Multi-Media". Gigaom. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  19. Swisher, Kara. "Synacor to Offer [[TV Everywhere]] Authentication Via Social ID". AllThingsD. Retrieved July 17, 2017. URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  20. Phatak, Anand; Hoggan, Stuart; Rosenberg, Peter; Ace, Timothy; Brinkmann, Brian (2016). "Authentication and Authorization Interface 1.1 Specification". CableLabs. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. Roettgers, Janko. "Apple TV Single Sign-In Not Supported by Every TV Operator". Variety. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  22. "Synacor Cancels IPO". PE Hub. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  23. "Synacor, looking for growth, agrees to a merger". The Buffalo News. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  24. "Synacor and Qumu Announce Mutual Termination of Merger Agreement". Business Wire. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
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