Will GoogleTube Be Announced This Week?
Michael Arrington
59 comments »
The Google/YouTube acquisition rumors developed quickly over the last few days. After our initial post discussing the rumor, the WSJ (behind a paywall) and the NY Times quickly followed up with their own articles. Neither publication contacted me, and I have no idea who their sources are.
Speculation went from there. For example, LeeAnn Prescott at Hitwise published data showing just how much bigger YouTube is compared to Google Video (LeeAnn also noted that Google could easily build a YouTube clone). And Mark Cuban continues to state that the deal makes no sense.
Other media are now stating that a deal is imminent. Whether its happening or not, this seems to be THE topic of conversation in Silicon Valley right now.
We don’t have any additional verified information, other than a bizarre story Marshall Kirkpatrick was tracking and that developed on Friday and Saturday. We got word that a lawyer representing Google may have told at least one person that the “deal has officially gone through.” The person who was supposedly told this then sent an email out to a number of people summarizing the conversation, which we got wind of. I spoke to the attorney, who denied having “any knowledge of the deal” or making that statement. I also spoke to the person who wrote the email, who backtracked and stated that he exaggerated the lawyer’s statements, and that, in short, the email he wrote wasn’t true. At that point Marshall and I decided to drop it. But I will say this - the fact that the lawyer repeately told me that he had no knowledge of a deal instead of “no comment” means he was either lying (unlikely), that a deal is happening and he doesn’t know about it (unlikely), or that there is no deal. We’ll see.
I just do not see the purpose of Google Acquiring YouTube when they have their own video service that they could expand on and slowly begin to challenge YouTube. It makes no sense that Google would acquire them other than to get their hands on technology that they could quite easily create themselves and push out to the majority of their users.
As you suggest Mike, it seems very strange that the lawyer was so emphatically denying it and that this may just be a case of the old “a swing and a miss”. Plus the acquisition price in my opinion seems to be excessive considering that the company claims only to be turning over $7.5 mill a month. That would mean its roughly $90 Mill a year (whose knows whether this is EBIT or not) and would take around 17 years to recoup unless the online video market exploded?
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I do think this move is not for the technology but to keep youtube out of yahoo mouth. Yahoo made really good purchases like flickr and delicious last few years and it wouldn t be surprising for them to add a video website they don’t have.
I agree with cyril in the way that its not just about tech. By now Google have everything except their own content. And YouTube is the right cake.
Its a good move IMO Google knows that its own service dosent have same strength and cult following and also You Tube has some great ties with the likes of Bebo and few other social network sites. It works out as roughly $32 per person if they buy for $1.6 billion mark so thats not bad! Especially if you have it to spend ha!
Good move by Google by acquiring YouTube. They have been contacting many publishers already to implement their video-ads. I guess if they will buy YouTube they will serve 100million videos ad views and get 100% revenue instead of a half that is getting now from serving ads outside google properties.
i wouldn’t be surprised if someone lied to keep their job.
as mark cuban says, it’s better to make a deal than buying them.
They are purchasing it to keep competitors on the shadow. With YouTube (IF IF IF!!!) becomes part of Google and later merged with Google Video, that’s a big leap and a huge competitor in the video-hosting space. Yahoo! Videos and similar services will be left to re-discuss things on the table.
Besides, YouTube already have a good UI, countless of videos, and bigger following than any of their competitors combined. What’s more, Google is trying to infiltrate countries Yahoo is currently domination. YouTube will be one wide-way for Google.
If google buys youtube they don’t need to pay out adsense money to youtube meaning they get to keep all the revenue from adverts displayed on that site (their usual cut and what they’d pay to youtube for the clicks).
youtube does have adsense doesn’t it?
Google have their own Video Service, Google Video for their broadcasting ability. I don’t see the point in buying out YouTube when they have their own service.
Although, buying out YouTube would knock the market off, the main Video Streaming Services are actually Google Videos and YouTube and maybe some others.
If Google are prepared to buy out websites then I’m seeing the Internet owned by Google in a few years to come.
I don’t know if I’m gonna like youtube after this acquisition anymore
Sure, google has been a forerunner for the “jedi side” of the IT world, but still an indi venture like youtube should’ve continued on their own. Its international branding like “Powered by google/yahoo” that makes these bright startups lose their cause to an overwhelmingly dictating power.
Its a sad day for mankind everywhere. ‘Well, if you can’t beat em’ just buy em” - thats what the whole web 2.0 world is all about these days, isn’t it?
With more mainstream national ad dollars shifting to the Internet versus tradtional media, solving the copyright issue and increasing the quality of user-generated content at YouTube could generate billions of ad revenues and market share annually for Google, while at the same time elimanating the ad revenue share business model.
greg, google video is no match for youtube.
it’s a community, it has countless features, while gvideo is a cold interface to the same thing.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Google already has this service. Why are they buying YouTube?
The news of the acquisition has reached unimaginable proportions. If the deal were to take place I wouldn’t be surprised if it was because Google execs just folded out of the pressure from the media. And if the acquisition does take place, then it goes against Sergey Brins’ “Features, not Products” initiative:
http://pulse2.com/2006/10/08/g.....red-light/
Its really a tough decision what to does at this point. Google is having enough problems as it is integrating their current products and deciding how to customize their executive Boeing jets. Just imagine trying to integrate the world’s biggest video website into Google Video.
what to do* at this point ^
What does all of the stories this morning about google signing deals with Sony BMG and Warner mean? Less likely, more likely?
http://www.video.sh
Video Share domain for sale
Unfortunately, this has everyone else standing at attention. So if the deal isn’t real or doesn’t go through, YT is at its most sellable RIGHT now. I don’t know why, because I agree with Mark Cuban about the legal aspects, but oh well, maybe they have a plan to dump all of the copyrighted stuff behind the scenes.
Why not just change the interface of Google video than paying 1.6 billion for a piece of software and a few users. Use the 1.6 billion for marketing purposes (deals w. video camera producers/ camera cell phones…). Also redirect all video searches to Google video and here you go
Google is wasting money if they sign this deal. Since Adsense and Adwords Google is pretty disappointing.
I think it makes perfect sense for Google to buy Youtube.
Rather than let that 1.6 billion rot in the bank account, why not use it to monopolize the entire video market.
Think about it. They have Myspace. Google Video. and now Youtube.
Look at that HUGE market share.
Microsoft/Yahoo stands no chance at all.
Google signed some deals with Sony BMG and Warner Music. So so so, we’re getting close!
zoso greg, google video is no match for youtube.
it’s a community, it has countless features, while gvideo is a cold interface to the same thing.
What features does YouTube have that Google can’t match in about a week’s worth of work? Also I’m sure that Google has some sort of video search technology that can look inside the video for things like characters and determine what the video is about.
The community aspect is what Google’s interested in, and is why Yahoo bought Digg and Flickr. I’m not sure if community is worth $1.6B for a company that’s just a portal to post videos.
^^???
Yahoo bought Digg?
I think Yahoo! bought Flickr but not Digg.
Why did the WSJ and the NYT need to contact you. The way journalism is going down the toilet these day, didn’t all they have to do is read you unsubstantiated blog posting and attempt to disguise it as investigation? Or did you have information you chose not to blog about? Afterall, wasn’t it you that basically suggested in your original post that this was more rumor than fact?
Cuban’s issue is copyright and he is right about that. But to say this is the power of YouTube is an overstatement. Think LonelyGirl15… there is a lot of original content on YT and more every day. The way I look at it, Google paid $900 million to own the ad space on MySpace. I think YT is shaping up to be as much as community as MySpace. So for $1.6 B they can own it. They have, what, $10 billion in the bank. They have stock value of what? Why not do this deal.
This may or may not be making of Techcrunch.. if this does not work out.. then Mike’s integrity, crediability and repoting goes down the drain..big time !!
Take time to read the zdnet post titled “Gillmor’s gesture to Mr. Mike ”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-m......php?p=519
FWIW, this jus maybe a Smoke Screen and Mike fell for it :(- in todays world its called a “sanctioned counter capital market intelligence initative” - somebody was told to leak info which is project a “postive” , but in reality it could “negative negative” -everything being deflective away from the main strategy !!
Oh well, lets see.. goog’s has the Q3/ earning declaration on the 19th !!
Actually, i think they’ll call it GooTube
blogreader, a community. embed for all. video comments. and others. i guess. i don’t use very much gvideo.
Google is trying to get in the negotiations to up the price, than pull out and leave Yahoo looking at a deal that will now cost them another half bil plus to complete.
..Just some thoughts to often repeated questions about why Google acquiring Youtube would be a bad deal:
Google already has a service, why not build up the existing one?
_Technology-Google video has been around much longer than YT yet there is still significant latency in consuming their video. Eventually they could probably figure it out but we’re on Internet time folks..
_User Base-YT has a user base that has rocketed as fast as the Google share price. For Google to get where YT is at, not only would they need to drastically improve the user experience of there existing svc but, more importantly, they first need to figure out how to deliver immediate, instant gratification as YT does. As many have seen, Google has not had much success developng a good user experience outside of the core Search functiionality
Why would Google take on all the legal/copyright issues that plague Youtube?
_the popularity of YT, imo, is the access to all the homemade videos put up by milliions of people from war coverage in Iraq(fyi,which is pretty graphic) to some kid in hell’s kitchen singing his heart out on a rickety keyboard. The copyright stuff that so often mentioned is just icing on the cake…
What do the deals with Sony et al foretell?
_it’s a vote of confidence, imo, by those who believe in this new distribution method
Btw, i don’t work nor own shares of Google. I do, however, like what they’ve done to change the business landscape in terms of mindset and what it means to create value for people–not just to dominate and beat down others like the boys in Redmond have done.
whoops! looks like a certain lawyer lied to me.
Wow, Google is getting creepy these days.
Hey, for all we know, Google is trying to get our reactions for their benefit.
Well, I guess GoogleTube is the future.
Wanna get rich?
This is just the beging. They will look at local search and try to blend communities and yellow pages. http://orlando.getphonenumbers.net
It’s good news for YouTube.
SOLAMENTE HABLO ESPAÑOL, NADA DE INGLRS, PERO FELICIDADES A GOOGLE, EN PARAGUAY YO TENGO A GOOGLE COMO MI PAGINA DE INICIO DESDE HACE 1 AÑO.
MUCHA SUERTE
This site is starting video classifieds,,,, I wonder how that will play out???
INTERNET NEWS & NOTES
________________________________________
Web Site Created To Connect Communities
(NAPSI)-There’s good news for Internet users who find searching for information about their interests can be time consuming and frustrating.
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According to the site’s manager, Dave Collins, it’s a place where people can easily and efficiently find and post all sorts of useful information about a specific topic, either locally or nationally.
To learn more, visit the Web site at http://www.iPoste.org.
A new Web site is said to offer a snapshot of timely information about your community-with the click of a mouse.
What’s with the fashion of renaming mergers? GoogleTube?!? That’s almost as good as Microvell (Microsoft’s partnership with Novell).