An Orem company on Thursday reached a $100 million software licensing deal with Japanese home appliances giant Sanyo.

AuctionVideo.com Inc., an Orem provider of Web-based telecommunications software, has entered a joint venture deal with NTT-Data Sanyo to license its audio-video cellphone technology as a key feature in Sanyo's digital VideoCellphone.

The deal was announced Thursday at the unveiling of Sanyo's VideoCellphone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The gadget uses AuctionVideo's "one touch upload" capability, which allows audio-video presentations to be recorded on the cellphone and then uploaded on to online auction sites such as eBay and Overstock.com. The cellphone, which is scheduled for a U.S. rollout this third quarter, also has videoconferencing capabilities.

Greg Ellis, co-founder and CEO of AuctionVideo, says he expects to attract up to 30,000 subscribers in Asia and the United States and sales are projected to reach $100 million this year.

"Our technology, to be distributed across millions of cell phone and Web users worldwide, allows the instant conversion of any video format, to any video format," he said. "Our software will not only help showcase the item sold in an online auction but also put the owner's face on the product."

His company is also licensing its software to AuctionCities.com Inc., a Ventura County, Calif.-based company that will help distribute Sanyo's videocellphones.

AuctionVideo, which has an office in Tokyo, has a total of 21 workers companywide, of which nine are in Orem. Founded in 2003 by Ellis and Kunio Toma, the company is looking to add another 20 employees in Orem in the next few months.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D6.