Oh they grow up so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that DivX's answer to YouTube was taking its first baby steps. But now it's all grown up and ready to leave the nest.

DivX has announced plans to spin Stage6 off as a separate company. According to the press release, the move will let DivX focus on its "high margin, fast-growing technology licensing business" by separating Stage6 from the parent company.

CEO Jordan Greenhall is stepping down to oversee the transition. Stage6 has been gaining visibility in recent months. The site had 10 million unique visitors in June, up from 4 million in April. Of course, that makes Stage6 about .001% as popular as market leader YouTube, but hey, you've gotta start somewhere. And Stage6 has one thing YouTube lacks: better video quality.

Now that Stage6 will be operating independently of DivX, it should be interesting to see how aggressive the company is at marketing itself as a YouTube/DailyMotion/Soapbox/Metacafe competitor.

[via PaidContent]