Australian telecom Telstra announced Thursday night that it has completed the sale of Ooyala to the video technology company’s upper management, thus culminating the infrastructure conglomerate’s pricey attempt to own a piece of Silicon Valley.

Telstra purchased Ooyala in two stages in 2012 and 2014 under the direction of former chief David Thodey, spending more than $500 million in the process. By 2016, Telstra conceded that the value of Ooyala had dipped to $246 million. And by last February, the telecom—which had attempted to participate in the monetization video companies like Netflix were enjoying on its network—submitted to that the value was zero.

Related: Telstra Writes Off Ooyala Investment

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

“With this transaction, we’re ushering in an exciting new chapter for our company, positioning ourselves to invest even more aggressively in our client solutions,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based Ooyala, in a statement. “We’re now much better equipped to more nimbly drive Ooyala’s growth—innovating our own technologies as well as acquiring others that deliver the best customer satisfaction. Our flagship product, the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, is on track to solidify a position as the best-in-class video streaming and media logistics solution.”

Ooyala hired Huberman in April 2017, about five months after former CEO Ramesh Srinivasan left the company. Huberman also came on board a couple months after Ooyala had reportedly laid off 14% of its workforce amid a restructuring that, it hoped, would lead to new jobs and product areas.

Ooyala’s Flex Media Platform underpins the company’s suite of video streaming and media logistics solutions. Ooyala powers the content supply chain for media, entertainment, telecommunications, enterprise, broadcast, and sports clients including Audi, Chelsea FC, Dell, National Rugby League of Australia, PGA, Starhub, Sky Sports, Turner … and Telstra, which will remain a customer.

Telstra said it will recognize an impairment charge as it writes down its investment in Ooyala, the struggling online video firm that the Australia-based company acquired in 2014.

Telstra, in an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange on February 2, noted that the non-cash impairment and write-down will carry the value of Ooyala, which has been serving as its U.S.-based video tech business, to “zero.” As a result Telstra said it expects to recognize an impairment charge of A$272 million (US$215 million).

Telstra acquired 9% of Ooyala in 2012, and raised it to 98% in 2014 as it tried to take advantage of the surging online video trend.

Telstra said it identified “challenges” in that business 18 months ago and impaired the Ooyala business at the time of its 2016 financial results, but continued to make efforts to turn around Ooyala’s business.

Last April, Ooyala tapped Jonathan Huberman as CEO, a move that came about five months after former CEO Ramesh Srinivasan left the company. Huberman also came on board a couple months after Ooyala had reportedly laid off 14% of its workforce amid a restructuring that, it hoped, would lead to new jobs and product areas.

Ooyala’s business has been focused on three areas: ad tech, online video players and a workflow management system.

Ad tech, “has not performed well and we will therefore seek ways to exit that part of the business,” Stephen Elop, the group executive, technology, innovation and strategy at Telstra, and the chairman of the Ooyala board, said in a statement.

RELATED: Vudu Taps Ooyala for New Ad-VOD Service 

He added that Telstra does “see a future in other core parts of the Ooyala business,” namely the video player and workflow management components, but later stressed that the company “will remain alert for broader strategic options for Ooyala in a market fragmented across multiple providers.”

That market is made up of a mix of different sized tech players that focus on different parts of the multiscreen video ecosystem, including Comcast Technology Solutions, Amazon, Brightcove, IBM, NeuLion, Disney-backed BAMTech, Zype, and Kaltura, among several others.

RELATED: Ooyala Sues Brightcove

Telstra, Elop noted, acquired Ooyala “when the market dynamics were very different…When we announced the initial impairment 18 months ago we indicated that we would be working closely with the team to turn around the performance. We believed Ooyala remained a young and exciting company with leading offerings in intelligent video which were continuing to evolve and scale. While some of these initiatives have been successful, the market has continued to change.”

Roku took the wraps off a new over-the-air/over-the-top hybrid device for its pay TV and telco operator partners worldwide, with Australia’s Telstra being the first to sign on for a deployment.

In addition to being equipped with a terrestrial TV tuner, the new box also supports 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) video formats.

Roku has added the device to a “Roku Powered” license program for pay TV partners, enabling them to use Roku’s TV-connected hardware with customized interfaces.

RELATED: Roku Amps Up Pay TV Partnership Play

Telstra, which joined Roku’s program in 2015, plans to introduce the new 4K HDR hybrid streaming player for its TV service later this month.

“Our new 4K HDR hybrid streaming player is ideal for countries where over the air TV is available. It really brings together entertainment sources in a clever way, so consumers can watch live and on demand entertainment with one single remote control,” Andrew Ferrone, vice president pay TV at Roku, said in a statement.

Others on board with Roku Powered include Sky (in the U.K., Republic of Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain), Econet/Kwese TV (South Africa); PLDT and Globe Telecom (Philippines).

Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, is preparing to take Ooyala, its Silicon Valley-based online video publishing and advanced advertising arm, public on the NYSE or NASDAQ exchange, The Australianreported.

“Our intent is to take the company public,” Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher told The Australian, noting that the company beat its $65 million revenue forecast last year, but has yet to turn a profit. “Over time this will become a multi-billion market-cap business.”

Telstra, which recently partnered up with Roku on an upcoming streaming TV service, hasn’t announced when it might take Ooyala public (sometime next year is a possibility), but word of its plans come about a year after Telstra announced an additional $270 million investment that expanded its ownership stake in Ooyala to 98%. 

Ooyala’s been running as an independent business under Fulcher. Its customers include Vice Media, ESPN, Telefonica, Univision, Pandora, NBCUniversal, LG Electronics, Fox Sports, Tennis Channel, BYU TV, Newsy, and Park City Television, among others.

One analyst questions whether Ooyala is positioned to hit lofty growth targets that would exceed $1 billion in annual revenues.

“Be excited, but be realistic,” Dan Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, surmised in this blog post about the plan. Citing a source at Telstra, he said Ooyala believes that it will drive $100 million in revenues for 2015.

“At the same time, Ooyala keeps talking about how they think their business can grow to do $1B in revenue in a few years, which isn’t realistic,” he said, pointing out that Brigthcove made the mistake of predicting growth targets it couldn’t match when it went public in 2012.

And while Ooyala sells into operators, which is not a key focus for Brightcove, “that alone is not enough to justify their market or revenue projections. Even if Ooyala grew revenue 50% each year, it would take them six years to get to $1B,” Rayburn said.

At the same time, he noted that he’s not “knocking Ooyala, Brightcove or any other video platform provider…I’m just as excited about the market opportunity as they are. But setting false expectations simply sets companies up for failure and is bad for the entire industry.” 

Video processing and cloud video services specialist Elemental Technologies said it has raised a $14.5 million “D” round led by Telstra, Australia’s largest telco, with participation from Sky, which tossed in a $4 million equity investment.

Existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Voyager Capital also participated in the round.

Elemental said it will use the funds to accelerate worldwide growth and expand its use of software-defined video products. The investments by Telstra and Sky also give Portland, Ore.-based Elemental solid business ties to two more large service providers and media companies.

Elemental said Telstra, which has begun to deploy 4G over new 700MHz spectrum, will  use the vendor’s full product line, with a “specific focus” on Elemental Delta, the vendor’s recently launched video delivery platform that supports a range of services and apps, including catch-up and start-over TV and network DVRs. 

“Our investment in Elemental will enable Telstra to create value for our global media customers,” said Mark Sherman, Telstra’s global enterprise and services managing director, ventures, said in a statement.

“For Sky, Elemental solutions support its current multiscreen OTT Sky Go properties, and as SDV architectures continue to mature, we believe there will be additional opportunities to collaborate in the future,” Sam Blackman, Elemental’s CEO, noted in this blog post about the funding round.

Sky has been splashing cash on a growing number of OTT and IP video-facing companies, including its recent investment in Pluto.TV and Roku, a leading providers of streaming media players. U.K.-based Sky operates three OTT services: Sky Go, NOW TV and Sky Store.

“In addition to an ongoing commercial relationship, Sky will have strategic access to the Elemental leadership team, which will help inform Sky’s long-term understanding and insight into future OTT developments,” Sky said.

Elemental, founded in 2006, already counts customers such as HBO, the BBC, ESPN, ABC News, CBS Interactive, Comcast and DirecTV, which has tapped Elemental’s file-based transcoding platform for the satellite TV giant’s new 4K offering.

Elemental  has raised $42.1 million so far, according to CrunchBase. 

Ooyala, the online video publishing and analytics firm acquired by Telstra earlier this year, is carving out an M&A path of its own after striking a deal to snap up Videoplaza, a company that specializes in video ad serving and programmatic advertising systems.

Ooyala’s acquisition follows other M&A action in the hot online video ad sector, such as Comcast’s recent purchase of Freewheel and Facebook’s of LiveRail.

Ooyala said the purchase of Videoplaza, a company that works with a range of broadcasters and media companies in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, will help it accelerate its entry into the video ad market as more viewing shifts from traditional TV to the Web and on mobile devices.

With Videoplaza, Ooyala said it will offer an expanded product portfolio that includes that will span content acquisition and workflow, playback, ad serving, programmatic trading, personalized content recommendation, and real-time analytics.

Videoplaza’s ad serving platform,  Karbon, and its programmatic trading platform, Konnect, will be sold both in conjunction with, and separately from, Ooyala's video platform, the companies said.

Videoplaza’s customers include M6 (France) and IP Deutschland (Germany), TV4 (Sweden), Mediaset (Spain), STV (U.K.), MediaCorp (Asia), Sony Entertainment India and Singapore's Mediacorp. Ooyala clients include Telstra, Univision, Foxtel, Comedy Central, NBC Universal, Telstra, and Telegraph Media Group, among others.

"Our combined platforms will offer a more holistic view of content and ad performance across a broadcaster's entire business, including granular data on not only what, how and where people are watching, but also where and how they can make the most money," said Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher, in a statement. “"Videoplaza's team has clearly demonstrated strong leadership in the fast-growing video advertising market, and are closely aligned with our vision for growth and innovation in this new line of business.”

"We are excited to join forces with Ooyala and Telstra. We share their vision and believe their strong appetite to invest for the long term in building a global market leader will set us apart. This acquisition will allow us to expand our mission in helping broadcasters and premium publishers build highly profitable and sustainable businesses,” added Videoplaza founder and CEO Sorosh Tavakoli, who has been tapped to head Ooyala’s video ad business line.