Kontiki, an early commercial peer-to-peer platform provider, is off to the next stop in its life. It has been purchased from VeriSign by its former investor MK Capital, as has been reported elsewhere. The company had been acquired only a year and a half ago by VeriSign for $62 million — not a great exit considering it had raised $41 million in venture capital prior to that.

Kontiki had been on the block for a while now, as VeriSign looked to focus on its core Internet infrastructure business, but there weren’t any obvious buyers. No purchase price for the most recent transaction was announced, but Dan Rayburn had said earlier this month that the company would be sold for around $40 million, or 3x revenue. So it seems the company’s value continues to go down as it ages. Update: According to a regulatory filing, the price was $1 million plus a stake in Kontiki. (paidContent)

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In a long-anticipated and legitimizing move, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released its new approved video advertising guidelines, agreed upon by some 145 video sites and advertising companies.

Like those for other forms of online advertising, the guidelines should make new forms of video advertising compatible between sites, so publishers and advertisers have an easier time working together. They also protect consumers, to some extent, from obnoxious new styles of video advertising that would not be compliant.

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When all that’s worth watching on a network is one show, or all that’s worth watching in a show is one scene, or all that’s worth watching in a scene is one line, just take us straight to the good stuff, right? But Mark Cuban, in an apocalyptic blog post, says online video will be destroyed by its ability to cater to these a la carte watching habits, because the economics don’t support them. He seems to thinks this will lead to the eradication of quality content.

Inspired by a Bernstein Research report that’s not publicly available, the cranky Cuban (who’s often blogged about his dissatisfaction with web video) quotes Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett,

Five years into the video-over-the-Internet revolution, we have learned two things. First; consumers won’t pay for content on the web, so it will have to be ad supported. And second; it won’t be ad supported.

Moffett’s math: Even if web video got the same CPMs as TV, because online viewers will tolerate less advertising, “a 30-minute program on the web with two minutes of advertising yields approximately 1/8th as much revenue per viewer.”

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Actors and the studios have agreed to extend their contract negotiations until May 6th, in what is being viewed as a positive (small) step towards averting another crippling strike in Hollywood. Formal negotiations were supposed to end today, but both sides agreed to continue talking after the actors made concessions on certain sticking points, such as their cut of DVD sales.

New media continues to be a sticking point between the two sides. SAG isn’t satisfied with the web deal worked out by the writers and directors and is looking to shrink the amount of time studios get to stream content without paying residuals (down from 17 days), as well as the types of web content that can be covered by the union’s contract.

The clock is ticking as SAG’s current contract expires June 30. A strike authorization vote hasn’t been called by the union yet, but any walkout would shut down movie production immediately. Big studios aren’t greenlighting any new films until a SAG agreement is in place.

Bolt.com, the popular video-sharing site that was taken completely off the Internet after both being sued by Universal Music Group and seeing its planned acquisition by GoFish fall through, is back online. According to a source familiar with the events, Bolt’s former president, Lou Kerner, purchased the assets for less than $200,000 from bankruptcy. The site is indeed up, though much of it is broken, with only about 100 newly added videos that work.

Click through to watch the “Bolt.com is ALIVE!!” video posted on the site for the occasion.

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After almost a year of private testing, Google TV Ads is now open to (almost) all U.S. advertisers. The idea behind Google TV Ads is to make the TV ad-buying process so simple that any small biz (with enough money) can do it. Just upload your commercial, select your budget and where you’d like it to run, and presto! Your ad is on TV.

Well, on DISH Network TV, anyway. That’s the only service that’s given the go-ahead to Google (cable companies are perfecting their own Project Canoe).

Don’t have a commercial? No problem. Visit the Google Ad Creation Marketplace and get hooked up with writers, editors and even voice-over talent that can bid on creating your ad. The create-your-own TV spot for small businesses space is getting crowded; check out Liz’s roundup of players.

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