It’s been confirmed, folks. Google is set to acquire YouTube. And the price? It’s even higher than the original estimate of $1 billion!
Here’s the Google Press Release.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
Google is banking on YouTube’s success in terms of userbase and community. YouTube, meanwhile, will benefit from Google’s existing advertiser relations. So there is a business model, after all.
My only concern at this point is on copyrighted content that’s already on YouTube. Does this mean they will be more actively purging the site of copyrighted content? And does this mean that copyright owners will start taking legal action?
Here’s an analysis of the reasons and implications of the acquisition on ForeverGeek.