On2 Technologies

On2 Technologies
Company type	Public
Industry	Video codec technology
Predecessor	The Duck Corporation
Founded	1 January 1992; 34 years ago in New York City, United States
Founder	Daniel B. Miller, Victor Yurkovsky, Stan Marder
Defunct	February 19, 2010
Fate	Acquired by Google
Headquarters	Clifton Park, New York, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Daniel B. Miller (CEO until 2000), Doug McIntyre (CEO), Bill Joll (CEO), Matt Frost (CEO and COO), J. Allen Kosowsky (Chairman), Eric Ameres (Engineering lead)
Products	TrueMotion codec family (TrueMotion S, 2, RT 2.0, VP3–VP8), Flix Cloud video encoding platform

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article On2 Technologies, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 25 July 2025

On2 Technologies, initially established as The Duck Corporation, was a publicly listed firm specializing in video codec technologies. Founded in New York City in 1992, its main office was located in Clifton Park, New York. The company was known for creating the TrueMotion codec family, which included TrueMotion S, 2, RT 2.0, and VP3 through VP8 variants. In February 2010, Google acquired On2 for around $124.6 million, subsequently making the VP8 codec a foundational element of Google's WebM video format.

History

The enterprise began as The Duck Corporation and developed the TrueMotion S codec, which found use in full motion video (FMV) games during the 1990s. Founded by Daniel B. Miller, Victor Yurkovsky, and Stan Marder, it established a satellite engineering office in Colonie, NY in 1994 under the leadership of Eric Ameres. Miller held the CEO position until 2000, after which Doug McIntyre assumed the role; later CEOs included Bill Joll and Matt Frost.

After 2003, CTO Eric Ameres relocated engineering operations to upstate New York before leaving the company in 2007. Paul Wilkins, founder of Metavisual—which On2 acquired in 1999—then co-managed technology development alongside Jim Bankoski. The VP3 codec from Metavisual served as the foundation for On2’s subsequent codecs and also influenced the open source Theora codec.

The company secured $1.7 million in venture capital from Edelson Technology Partners in 1995 and raised $7 million mainly from Citigroup Ventures by 1997. In 1999, The Duck Corporation merged with Applied Capital Funding, a public entity listed on the American Stock Exchange, rebranding itself as On2 Technologies (stock symbol: ONT). Its share price surpassed $40 at its peak, briefly valuing the company at over $1 billion.

On2 grew through several acquisitions: Quickband, Inc. in April 2000 to enter the short-form digital content distribution market; Eight Cylinders Studios in November 2000 to bolster game engine development capabilities; and Finnish company Hantro Products in November 2007 to enhance its codec solutions for wireless devices.

In late 2008, On2 collaborated with Zencoder to introduce Flix Cloud—a scalable online video encoding platform built on Amazon EC2 infrastructure—which launched publicly in April 2009.

Key leadership figures included Chairman J. Allen Kosowsky and COO Matthew C. Frost. Before its acquisition by Google, the company’s strategic focus centered on advancing codec technology and expanding its global footprint through acquisitions and cloud services.

Acquisition by Google

On August 5, 2009, Google proposed acquiring On2 Technologies for $106.5 million in stock. This offer was increased to $133.9 million on January 7, 2010. On February 17, 2010, shareholders approved the transaction, which was finalized on February 19, 2010, at an approximate value of $124.6 million.

Following the acquisition, On2 ceased sales of its product range—including Flix Pro, Flix Standard, Flix Exporter, Flix PowerPlayers, Flix Live, Flix DirectShow SDK, Flix Publisher, and Flix Engine—as Google integrated On2’s video compression technologies into its own portfolio. This integration strengthened Google's position within digital media technology markets and enhanced its video service capabilities.

TrueMotion S

The development of TrueMotion S commenced in the early 1990s with the goal of enabling full-motion video playback in computer games. Its primary advantage lay in removing the necessity for dedicated decoding hardware, which lowered expenses for game developers compared to MPEG, known for requiring specialized hardware. TrueMotion S is a proprietary lossy video compression format that encodes frames in either 32-bit or 16-bit RGB color spaces and is identified by the FourCC codes DUCK or TMOT. Typically, it is contained within an AVI file, with extensions varying depending on the game, such as .avi, .bin, or .duc. Licensed platforms included Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, while games like Simon & Schuster's Star Trek: Borg also utilized this codec. Playback support is available through media players employing the libavcodec library, including MPlayer.

In 1995, Horizons Technology Inc. introduced TrueMotion-S Compressor software for both Macintosh and Windows systems, facilitating video compression purely through software without requiring expensive hardware upgrades. Originally created by Duck Corp., TrueMotion S competed directly with codecs like Cinepak and Indeo during the first wave of CD-ROM-based gaming consoles around 1996. This technology became a cornerstone of the company’s multimedia compression offerings and significantly influenced its position in the market.

TrueMotion RT

Launched in 1996, TrueMotion RT was designed for real-time capture and processing of digital video streams.

TrueMotion 2

The second iteration supported a 24-bit RGB color space optimized for Windows environments and was recognized by the FourCC code TM20. It was implemented in titles such as Final Fantasy VII and Star Trek: Klingon. In 1997, Microsoft licensed TrueMotion 2.0 to deliver broadcast-quality video on personal computers, marking a pivotal business alliance.

DK ADPCM Audio 3/4

Two now-obsolete variants were developed for related ADPCM audio compression tasks.

TrueMotion VP3/4

Version 3.1 was unveiled on June 1, 2000, followed by version 3.2 in August of the same year; these versions transitioned to a planar Y'CbCr 4:2:0 color format. In late 2001, On2 Technologies released VP3 technology as open source—including its patents—allowing the Xiph.Org Foundation to create the Theora codec with improved chroma subsampling capabilities. VP4 arrived in April 2001 with enhancements to the encoder while preserving compatibility with the existing bitstream format.

TrueMotion VP5/6

The preview release of VP5 occurred on February 21, 2002, with full production availability by May 1, 2002. Initially promoted through a beta RealPlayer plug-in, VP5 was rapidly succeeded by VP6, which maintained the same bitstream but introduced an optional alpha transparency channel.

In April 2003, AOL obtained extensive licensing rights for both VP5 and VP6 codecs, reflecting On2’s strategic approach to licensing. By February 2011, On2 had licensed its technologies to major corporations including AOL (for IP-based video telephony), Tencent (instant messaging), and Saver Corporation (mobile Flash video).

VP6 was officially launched on May 12, 2003, followed by updates labeled revisions 6.1 and 6.2 within that year. Since October 2003, personal usage of VP6 has been offered free of charge.

On2’s codecs were selected by Beijing E-World for use in the Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) format toward the end of 2003; however, contractual disagreements resulted in arbitration proceedings during 2005 without any financial benefit accruing to On2 from this endeavor. Despite this challenge, On2 sustained partnerships with companies such as Apex Datacom, IWAPI Inc., Vividas, Digital Witness, XM Satellite Radio, PowerLinx, and LeapFrog Enterprises—anticipating increased revenue from these alliances.

In 2004, On2’s VP6 codec was adopted as the official codec for Macromedia Flash Video 8 following a licensing deal that generated $1.4 million in revenue during Q2. Further expanding its offerings, On2 acquired Flix Flash video encoding technology from Wildform in April 2005 and incorporated Flash 8 output capabilities into its Flix 8 product line released later that September.

TrueMotion VP7

Launched in March 2005, the seventh iteration of TrueMotion VP7 enhanced bitstream efficiency and has been available for personal use without charge since July of that year. This codec is compatible with both VFW and DirectShow, with On2 Technologies asserting that it offers superior compression performance compared to prominent codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and VC-1.

Introduced in January 2005, On2 presented VP7 as a codec surpassing the H.264/AVC standard in terms of technical performance and licensing expenses, although developers of rival encoders expressed reservations about this assertion. By April 2005, On2 had licensed both VP6 and VP7 codecs for incorporation into Macromedia Flash, broadening their commercial application.

In December 2005, Skype incorporated On2’s video compression technology into its beta version of video conferencing software, enhancing its capabilities without publicly disclosing the financial arrangement. Later, in August 2007, On2 integrated H.264 support into its On2 Flix product suite, signaling a strategic alignment with prevailing industry standards.

VP7 also found adoption by Move Networks for its Move Media Player plugin, which was utilized by leading broadcasters including ABC and Fox, underscoring the codec’s significance in streaming media solutions for major clients.

TrueMotion VP8

Introduced in 2008, VP8 gained prominence following Google's acquisition of On2 Technologies. Google released the VP8 codec as open source on May 19, 2010, under a permissive BSD license. This initiative strengthened Google’s position in video compression technology and expanded its influence within the digital media sector.

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