Google is buying a video streaming company to get more media companies on its cloud

Google is on a bit of an acquisition tear. Its latest, announced on Thursday, is the eight-year-old video platform Anvato, which will join Google’s cloud division.

The purchase is meant to boost Google’s ability to recruit media companies to its cloud storage business, which is trying to compete with Microsoft and Amazon. Anvato sells software that takes care of the backend systems for storing and streaming video. It counts big media companies, like NBCUniversal* and Fox Sports, among its customers.

That type of software will be more in demand as more video moves “over the top,” requiring cloud support. That’s what Google’s banking on, anyway. Its cloud service has some media clients — Sky News and Spotify among them — but would like more.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Anvato had raised $2.5 million in two rounds (both in its founding year, 2008). Yesterday, Google announced it was acquiring an image recognition company in France. As we’ve reported before, Google’s enterprise division is on the prowl.

* NBCU is an investor in Recode parent company Vox Media.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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