Verizon acquires Vessel, will shut it down on October 31

Verizon has announced it is acquiring subscription video service Vessel, but it's the swift closure of Vessel that is surprising.

Vessel worked with YouTube giants and other video creators in its first few months on the block, offering early access to their videos for $2.99 per month. The company raised over $130 million from investors, too. Jason Kilar was Hulu's former CEO before he founded Vessel with Richard Tom, who was Vessel's CTO - Tom will stay with Verizon/Vessel, but Kilar won't be around after the transition of the acquisition later this year.

In a blog post, the Vessel founders said: "At the heart of this transaction is the Vessel technology, product and team that we have built. These three things will be married with Verizon's ambitions in online video. Though the team and the actual tech + product will live on at Verizon in ways that will become apparent in the months and years ahead, sadly we will be sunsetting the Vessel service at the end of this month (October 31)".

What will Verizon do with Vessel? The company has plans to throw some of Vessel's social features into existing Verizon products, and it will be looking into subscription business models for its video content.