http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/06/completely-unsubstantiated-googleyoutube-rumor/ Rumored price is $1.6 billion. A quick phone call to a VC confirmed that the rumor is circulating (he also confirmed the price), but that is far from confirmation that this deal is happening. I believe this is a smart move on Google's part. 1) Google buys Youtube 2) Youtube and Google deploy video adwords ie- contextual/âvidtextualâ ads postroll, monetizing the content. 3) Google delivers Youtube via Appleâs iTV, to generate more revenue on their tv, what a novel concept. Also, lets say it is 1.6 billion. with Youtubeâs existing traffic and Googleâs ability to increase it, youâre saying Google canât return its investment within the first few years? Donât look at the 1.6 billion for what Youtube is today, but what Youtube will be once injected into Google. We were all once calling news corp idiots for buying myspace a year ago, now itâs a steal. Hats off to Google if they pull this off.
Hat's off? Not likely. Consider these points: 1. YouTube hasn't found a way to monetize its site. Sure videoads might be interesting, but there's a reason why we switch from regular TV show to internet, cables, and TiVo. 2. Clustered server technology that Google has might be a good addition to solve YouTube's bandwith problem. But still, this won't be plausible for business. Why would you add burden to your network use for something that is yet to score profit. So I think Google's stock might spike a while because of this but it's not there to stay
YouTube is #10 site on web. Mainstream media is moving onto YouTube in a big way... Check out NBC's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=NBC YouTube is now more powerful than NBC. Most people making negative arguements about YouTube are 6 months out-of-date internet time... Which is about 50 years in human terms.