WSJ: Google in talks to buy YouTube
Google Inc. is in talks to acquire the popular video-sharing site YouTube Inc. for roughly $1.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Citing a person familiar with the matter, the publication said discussions are still at a sensitive stage and could well break off.
A spokeswoman for YouTube could not be reached for comment and Google declined to comment on "rumors and speculation."
According to the report, YouTube commanded 46 percent of visits to U.S. online video sites in August, compared to a 23 percent share for the video activities of MySpace and 10 percent for Google Video.
YouTube says consumers view videos over 100 million times daily through its service and upload more than 65,000 videos each day.
"YouTube has stood out from the growing crop of online video services for its simplicity," the Journal reported. "[It] serves up videos that generally can be viewed without users downloading special software. It also let consumers display its videos on other sites, such as blogs or personal pages on MySpace."
A YouTube buyout would represent one of the largest acquisitions for Google, the report adds. Although it sits on nearly $10 billion in cash, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has focused mostly on smaller targets such as Pyra Labs, the company behind the Blogger service, online photo-search firm Picasa and satellite-mapping company Keyhole.
Last month, it was reported that Google and Apple had entered into discussion about making files from Google Video easily accessible by the new Apple $299 iTV device, due out early next year. Therefore, a YouTube acquisition by Google could possibly broaden the magnitude of content available to iTV adopters.
Citing a person familiar with the matter, the publication said discussions are still at a sensitive stage and could well break off.
A spokeswoman for YouTube could not be reached for comment and Google declined to comment on "rumors and speculation."
According to the report, YouTube commanded 46 percent of visits to U.S. online video sites in August, compared to a 23 percent share for the video activities of MySpace and 10 percent for Google Video.
YouTube says consumers view videos over 100 million times daily through its service and upload more than 65,000 videos each day.
"YouTube has stood out from the growing crop of online video services for its simplicity," the Journal reported. "[It] serves up videos that generally can be viewed without users downloading special software. It also let consumers display its videos on other sites, such as blogs or personal pages on MySpace."
A YouTube buyout would represent one of the largest acquisitions for Google, the report adds. Although it sits on nearly $10 billion in cash, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has focused mostly on smaller targets such as Pyra Labs, the company behind the Blogger service, online photo-search firm Picasa and satellite-mapping company Keyhole.
Last month, it was reported that Google and Apple had entered into discussion about making files from Google Video easily accessible by the new Apple $299 iTV device, due out early next year. Therefore, a YouTube acquisition by Google could possibly broaden the magnitude of content available to iTV adopters.
Comments
But... Apple YouTube... Google YouTube... I dunno. GoogleTV probably, available through AppleTV.
its is a slow, grossly inaccurate crap tool,yahoo crushes it anyday.
if they buy you tube it will then suck too...
ANd Yes I have not yet had my coffee
Google is the possibly the only company who could afford to deal with all of the enormous legal problems (copyright infringement issues) such a sale could encompass. They should definitely offer less.
But... Apple YouTube... Google YouTube... I dunno. GoogleTV probably, available through AppleTV.
What copyright infringement issues? None of the content there is copyrighted is it? You tube may be a little less strict about that than google. My brother submitted a fan trailer for North by Northwest and Google wouldn't put it on. So I doubt that will be an issue for them. If youtube *is* less strict about that sort of thing, we'll likely see some videos dropped if they go over to google.
this should be on googleinsider, or youtubeinsider.
After I finished the article, I was thinking the same thing. A nice piece of gossip but nothing to do with Apple. Didn?t Mark Cuban recently say only a moron would buy youtube?
http://news.com.com/Mark+Cuban+Only+...3-6121034.html
If any major company buys youtube, then youtube will go the way of napster when they went legit. they have 100mil daily visitors because 95mil are watching copyrighted content. period.
And the other half are video bloggers
And the other half are video bloggers
I rarely have a good chance to use the rolleyes smiley, but I definitely agree and second the rolleyes
I also agree with the assessment above. Most everyone on YouTube is there to view copyrighted content, and most of the other content isn't worth the cost of the server space and bandwidth. However, every now and then, there is a small scale short that is just golden. What would we do without such masterpeices as "Brokeback to the Future" and "Brokeback and the Goblet of Fire"?
What copyright infringement issues? None of the content there is copyrighted is it? You tube may be a little less strict about that than google. My brother submitted a fan trailer for North by Northwest and Google wouldn't put it on. So I doubt that will be an issue for them. If youtube *is* less strict about that sort of thing, we'll likely see some videos dropped if they go over to google.
YouTube isn't less strict about copyright issues, it just takes them longer to respond/delete offending files than Google.
... However, every now and then, there is a small scale short that is just golden. What would we do without such masterpeices as "Brokeback to the Future" and "Brokeback and the Goblet of Fire"?
They are great - I'd not seen them before!
Here are the links:
Brokeback to the Future
Harry Potter and the Brokeback Goblet
Mac Advert spoof
and another
Mac upgradability
Actually - YouTube is great - I sense a late night of random videos... if only there was a way to watch them on my tv.... (damn this laptop gets warm!)
YouTube isn't less strict about copyright issues, it just takes them longer to respond/delete offending files than Google.
A lot longer, I just watched an episode of Jon Stewart that was posted 8 months ago, and that's copyright material. So is the re-editing of films, commercials, sports broadcasts, pro wrestling, concert footage, etc, etc, which comprise a lot of the "original" content there.
Google will make YouTube go the way of Napster, because they're a giant legit company under the microscope and don't want to be sued. YouTube will be replaced, but not in the format, as Google will sick their team of lawyers on anyone who tries in order to protect their investment.Watch for the BitTorrent community to grab a giant slice of the YouTube pie. The challenge will be do develop a client (if it hasn't already been done) that loads the videos directly into the browser, as needing to download, then open takes some of the sponteneity out of the experience. Some sort of Azureus/Firefox plugin would be nice.
In Napster, the service bit the dust, then it was changed into a legit company (after losing a ton of public use). In buying YouTube before it gets hit legally as bad as Napster did, Google is trying to make the transition smoother so as to keep as many users as possible from trying something else. I'd say the shit would hit the fan with YouTube within a year anyways.
BTW, YouTube directly competes with iTunes television program downloads, be it via copyrighted material ripped from TV or the wealth of indie content. Why download a season of Desperate Housewives when there's such a great wealth of equally mind-numbing bile available for free? The big winners in this are whoever gets the Billion from Google in the sale...
What copyright infringement issues? None of the content there is copyrighted is it? You tube may be a little less strict about that than google. My brother submitted a fan trailer for North by Northwest and Google wouldn't put it on. So I doubt that will be an issue for them. If youtube *is* less strict about that sort of thing, we'll likely see some videos dropped if they go over to google.
Are you serious? More than half the videos I've seen on YouTube are someone else's property. YouTube is saddled by massive, massive copyright infringements. Why else do you think Universal has stated that YouTube owes them a ton of money for this very problem. No one's suing yet, because they're waiting for the company to be sold, then work out the payments.
Mac Advert spoof
LMAO!! Now, THAT was funny
Another funny YouTube/ Apple video.