Sorenson Media Ends Boom Year with 50 Percent Revenue Growth; Signals More to Come in 2010

SAN DIEGO (December 29, 2009) – Sorenson Media today sited 2009 as one of the most eventful and successful years in its nearly 15-year history, with an expansion of the executive team and major product launches leading the way to more than 50 percent revenue growth in Q4 2009 over Q4 2008.

“This has been a watershed year for our company in every respect,” said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media, who joined the company in February. “I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead this pioneering company during these extraordinary times of mass adoption of online video, and I am proud of my team and all that we have accomplished this year. Our brand, our rich history of innovation, our long-term history of profitability, and our team set us apart from all others in our space. I like where we uniquely sit as we enter 2010.”

Among the accomplishments during 2009, Csathy acknowledges 10 events as keys to the company’s success:

(1)  Expanded Executive Team. During the first quarter of 2009, Sorenson Media significantly augmented its leadership team, which now includes Eric Quanstrom, vice president of marketing and strategy; David Dudas, vice president of product development; Mike Flathers, CTO; Charles Sismondo, vice president of engineering; Kirk Punches, vice president of sales; Mark Ivins, Controller; and Csathy, president and CEO.

(2)  Opened San Diego Office. A new office in San Diego makes it possible to tap the rich talent pools of both Salt Lake City and Southern California – the hub of digital media. The company hired aggressively throughout 2009 and will continue its significant expansion in 2010 with numerous jobs, which are currently listed at www.sorensonmedia.com/jobs.

(3)  Launched Sorenson 360. The Sorenson 360 online video platform launched to critical acclaim and immediately differentiated itself among the competition by enabling users to take control of the quality and format of the videos they publish on the Internet.

(4)  Released Sorenson Squeeze 6. The latest version of the gold-standard video encoding software was made available in November 2009, followed immediately by the largest sales days in company history. Squeeze 6, along with Sorenson 360, represents a major milestone in the online video industry by offering the first total workflow solution for video professionals and businesses.

(5)  Completed a Full Corporate Rebranding. Beginning with a completely new Web site, the company ushered in a new focus on ease of use and overall customer experience, with the new look and feel of its brand extending across the entire product line.

(6)  Expanded Software Compatibility. In addition to a long-time partnership with Avid’s suite of editing applications, Sorenson Squeeze 6 is now seamlessly integrated with Apple’s Final Cut Pro and iMovie products.

(7)  Added Major Partners. Partnerships were signed with a number of blue-chip companies to incorporate the Sorenson Spark codec into mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices. 

(8)  Increased Overall Brand Recognition. Media attention given to Sorenson Media increased across the board, culminating in an article by USA Today that acknowledged the pivotal role the company played as a pioneer of Internet Video.

(9)  Received Top Industry Awards. Streaming Media magazine recognized Sorenson Squeeze with the Readers’ Choice Award for Best Encoding Software for the third straight year, and Sorenson 360 was a finalist in the online video platform category. The company was also honored as one of the Fierce 15 by FierceOnlineVideo.

(10) Added Product Features. In addition to the major product launches, the Sorenson Media team demonstrated its passion and commitment to innovation by continuing to add new features to Sorenson 360 to quickly meet customer demand, including direct-to-iPhone video publishing, a Software Developers Kit for the video player and improved security and workflow.

“These are just some of the highlights of the year,” said Csathy. “But, it’s time to stop looking back. Now, it's all about moving forward – and continuing to out-innovate the competition and offer the most compelling video solutions to video professionals and businesses of all sizes. 2010 is set to be even more eventful with many significant announcements teed up for early in the New Year. Overall, next year will represent a seminal year not only for us, but also for the entire online video market opportunity, as businesses of all size begin to recognize – on a massive scale – that nothing online is as impactful as video.”

About Sorenson Media

Sorenson Media (www.sorensonmedia.com) offers comprehensive, award-winning solutions that empower businesses and video professionals to easily and affordably publish the highest-quality video to the Internet and other media. Included among its products and services are the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (VDN), Sorenson Media’s re-imagined video publishing platform; Sorenson Squeeze, the gold-standard for video encoding applications; Sorenson Squish and SquishNet, which together create an easy-to-use browser-based video publishing platform for user-generated content; and Sorenson Spark, the industry’s most widely used video codec, which enables mobile devices and other consumer products to playback the largest selection of video on the Internet today. Since its inception in 1995, Sorenson Media has been instrumental in bringing Internet video to mainstream applications and is committed to dramatically improving the online video experience for both content creators and consumers.

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Press Contact

Jacob Moon
Sorenson Media Public Relations
801.490.1017
jacob@sorensoncompanies.com