I used to work in the same building as on2 in Clifton Park. You could still make out the company name on the sign next to the main entrance. Many people are amazed to find out that the technology behind a lot of internet video has roots in this area. The building also housed many of the developers for company called Kitware, which are probably best known for cmake.
I always wondered happened to the people after Google purchased on2. It would make sense that Google would want to keep that knowledge and not just buy it for the patents and source. Thank you for clearing that up.
I suspect the source code would have had way less value without the engineers who created it.
Given they paid > $130M for the company, taking on 15 or 20 engineers who know the code inside & out, and are a proven functional team, would be a no-brainer for Google (they're always searching for talented tech ppl anyway).
The only sort of businesses who regularly buy IP without the team behind it are patent trolls and shitty companies who buy to kill competition.
