Video publisher Brightcove names new CFO, reportedly preparing for IPO

Online video publisher Brightcove is preparing for an IPO next year after it named Phase Forward’s Chris Menard as the company’s chief financial officer today, according to a report by Reuters.

Brightcove gives content providers and marketing firms a way to publish video content to the web using HTML 5 — which means it will be enabled for most mobile devices. The company also offers ways to deliver live and on-demand video content.

Menard is the latest in a slew of executives pulled from other companies. David Mendels of Adobe and former Macromedia chief financial officer Betsey Nelson also recently joined Brightcove. Chief executive officer Jeremy Allaire, Nelson and Mendels all worked for Nelson at Macromedia, which was later acquired by Adobe for its flash technology that powers most online video software today.

Menard coming to Brightcove, with his expertise in enterprise software distribution, is another indication of how serious cloud-based video provider Brightcove is taking companies like Google and Microsoft as potential rivals in the enterprise video publishing space. Phase Forward, an enterprise software provider covering clinical trials and drug safety, was acquired by Oracle for $685 million in August. Allaire said the company is gearing up for competition from much larger companies with the staff acquisitions like Microsoft and Google, according to the Reuters report.

Brightcove, which is backed by firms like Accel Partners, AOL and AllianceBernstein, was launched in 2004. Its clients include Showtime, The New York Times, The Weather Channel and Condé Nast. The company has grown about 50 percent year-over-year and is expected to bring in $50 million in revenue next year.

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