This morning Box, a cloud-based file-management service, announced that it has acquired Streem, a Y Combinator-backed company that allows customers to stream files to their desktop environments.
Box declined to share terms of the agreement, but did note in an email that it bought the company using a blend of cash and stock. The four members of Streem will join Box. Streem’s product will be subsumed into Box’s larger offerings, the company told TechCrunch. That process is underway now.
Recently, Streem raised $875,000 to build out its product.
Box, a company that is currently in the process of going public, had revenue north of $100 million in its most recent fiscal year. It is currently working to expand its set of offerings, as their ability to charge for pure cloud storage falls. The company, and its competitors, are keen on building out their product stacks, both vertically and horizontally, in the face of that market reality.
According to TechCrunch’s own Ron Miller, the deal fills a product gap for Box, which has, in his estimation, lagged behind competitors Dropbox and Google Drive in terms of providing access to cloud files on a user’s desktop setup. Presumably, the deal will allow Box to better vend its service to large corporate customers who are more accustomed to desktop, and not cloud-based setups.
In a blog post announcing the deal, Box CEO Aaron Levie indicated that “Streem has developed enhanced video and media-streaming technology to ensure content is accessible from the cloud as fast as it is locally.”
Box is a quickly growing, unprofitable business, with mounting losses that, in its most recent fiscal year, outstripped its revenue.
