The video compression software company plans to raise as much as $135 million in an initial public sale.DivX, a San Diego company that makes video compression software, filed on May 5 to raise $135 million in an initial public stock sale.
DivX's technology allows large video files to be delivered over the Internet. The DivX codec is popular among Internet users who share video files as well.
According to company executives, the DivX digital video file format is in some 50 million devices (DVD players, for example) around the world.
The IPO comes at a heady time for online digital video, which is popular but still in its nascent stages. DivX potentially faces competition from major software and hardware makers, including Apple Computer, Microsoft and Sony.
The DivX compression format lets users create videos with advanced features such as menus, subtitles and alternate audio tracks. The video files can be copied to a DVD.
DivX software is available for consumer download, but the company makes the bulk of its money through license fees charged to DVD makers and other hardware companies.
DivX saw its revenue double from $16.4 million in 2004 to $33 million in 2005.
The company received $17 million in funding in October 2005.
In January, DivX announced a partnership with Google at the Consumer Electronics Show. At the time, DivX executives said the partnership would lead to Google offering the video content users find through Google Video Search in a variety of DivX-ready download/playback formats.
The company was founded in 2000 by Jerome Rota, a French engineer, and Jordan Greenhall, a former MP3.com employee. DivX is housed in the former offices of the defunct Internet music firm.
The company has applied for listing of its common stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol DIVX.
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