[quote]Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
October 9, 2006, 4:44 PM
Google has agreed to purchase popular video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, the two companies announced after the close of the stock market Monday. The deal marks the largest acquisition for Google in the company's eight-year history.
A potential deal had been rumored since late last week, prompting surprise from a number of industry watchers who failed to see what Google would gain from the purchase. However, the search giant says it will unite YouTube with its online advertising platform.
The deal was reportedly developed in less than a week, and is a massive sum for a company with just 67 employees that was founded only 19 months ago. But YouTube's popularity on the Internet has seen unprecedented growth, even recently outpacing the popular MySpace social network site.
"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement.
"By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners," remarked YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley.
YouTube will retain its brand name and offices in San Bruno, Calif., the companies said, and all YouTube employees will keep their jobs. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of the year.
I can't tell if this is good or bad thing sounds bad though.
Holy **** =/
Can't see how it's a bad thing though. Not like Google is known for intrusive ads. But yeah, I didn't know YouTube was only made around two years ago. I can't believe it got so popular so quickly. Christ.
I feel a little wary of this.. because I think google's going to end up taking over the internets.. but, interesting nonetheless.
According to the BBC...
googles plans for it involve advertising... meaning that each video could have an advert before it which will put me off from going there.
However, one thing which has caught my interest is that apparently if your video gets X number of hits per month, you could get a small portion of the advertising profits made from your video. Meaning people who get 1 million views on their videos could potentially become very rich for uploading a video. Still its adverts soo alot of ppl are going to be quitting gaytube
So it's going to become like msn video.. yuck. I like the profit idea, but it'd have to be an extremely good video for that to happen.
If Google Video and Youtube stay separate, I will be happy.
If Youtube videos have to go through the same screening process Google uses for their videos, I will be angry.
If Youtube undergoes any large changes, I'll be sad.
yeah a video never gets alot of hit to begin with unless its a new fad! now think of a new net fad and you'll get alot of hits.
I like Google Video because you can often download the videos. Maybe Google will do the same for Youtube.
Seems a bit wierd seeing as Google have their own video thing going on. As long as it isnt flooded with adverts I guess I'm fine with it.
i'd be very interested to see how this pans out...
as long as google dont decide to terminate youtube in anyway
[quote]"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to TAKE OVER THE UNIVERSE," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement.
It really should be fine unless they do the little ads before the movie thing. I hate that idea so much.
Remember, Google, with great power comes etc.
I never hit any ads when I'm on Google Video, so I doubt they'll do that to Youtube. I doubt we'll see much change on Youtube.
I don't like google primarily because they sort of hold a monopoly over certain aspects of internet searching, their software is on so many computers, and a lot of it is semi-intrusive. They'll just end up fagging the Hell out of YouTube, which is a real shame. But, had I owned YouTube, I would have sold too. $1.6bn is hard to refuse.
I think there's a little bit of confusion as to what actually happened. First off, Google didn't actually pay $1.65 billion for YouTube. They offered YouTube $1.65 billion in Google stocks. So basically, YouTube becomes part of Google's legion of internet dominance, meaning they'll fund it. Google will basically use YouTube's extreme popularity to increase it's wealth, thus making that 1.65 billion stock YouTube now owns even greater. It's a common case of 'you pat my back, and I'll pat yours'. Google will definitely put ads all over it, and want a say in changes that are made to it, but other than that, it'll probably be the same old YouTube.
As for the commercial thing before videos, I don't think Google would do that. It'd be murder to their own investment. Google knows how badly their Google Video turned out (compared to YouTube), which is likely why they did this.
So yeah, basically, it's a partnership. YouTube will still be run by the same people. Watch:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QCVxQ_3Ejkg
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6034577.stm]more info..[/url]
... kids that young just made a billion dollars? Holy ****, they must be on top of the world.
i hope they'll change google video. the quality is always really ****ty on the videos. not that youtube is amazing, but google video blows.
I just hope they don't get rid of all the music videos and clips on YouTube.
I basically said what Vamp said... except out loud... and stuff...
Seriously, that was a little bit unexpected, and in such short time too. I wonder what's going to happen now that this is going through.
Google has their own video service, they don't need another one.
My aunt's work has a lawsuit with Google because they're putting McGraw Hill (her company)'s books online to view for free.
I saw this on the news. I hope YouTube doesn't go craptastic :(
YouTube was getting what, $60 million in revenue a year? $1.65 billion sounds like a lot...
I heard on TV no actualy money was passed between this deal. Something to do with the shares each company had.
Yeah, the YouTube guys now have $1.65B in Google stock.
I like how on the main page, this thread is called "Google Buys YouTube for $1.65..."
I was under the impression that GV was for an entirely different purpose to YouTube - paid video content like what's going on at iTunes instead of user content.