inDplay Acquired by Ascent Media's Global Media Exchange

inDplay, a Silicon Valley-based start-up that developed an international online marketplace for film, TV and video rights (note: for more on the company, see [itvt]'s interview with its founder and CEO, Goetz Weber, in Issue 6.98), has been acquired by Global Media Exchange (GMX), a division of Ascent Media that plans to use inDplay's intellectual property and other resources to offer a similar content licensing marketplace service of its own which is scheduled to launch early next year. GMX says that the acquisition will give it "valuable IP product information for software modules including digital rights and deal management" and that it will also enable it to "obtain specific business and market knowledge on the emerging digital content marketplace to integrate into its existing resources and development." GMX says it will continue to service much of inDplay's existing customer base following the acquisition. "By acquiring key IP and learning from [inDplay's] development history, we are enabling GMX to take on new business sooner," GMX's SVP of business development, Steve Lyons, said in a prepared statement. GMX says that it plans to offer a global online platform for content buyers and sellers: for content buyers, the company says, its platform will offer an efficient means to distribute and monetize professional content; for buyers and distributors, it says, it will offer an easily accessible library of premium content; and for both parties, it says, it will streamline content transactions and offer rights management solutions that work across media and platforms worldwide.