Google acquires YouTube for $1.6bn

Google acquires YouTube for $1.6bn

October 10, 2006 by Vinny Lingham

I can’t believe that MSN and Yahoo actually let Google buy YouTube. Google acquired the 18 month old startup for $1.6bn in stock - this reminds me of the dot com days.

It looks to me that Google is going on a rampage and the rest of the Titans are powerless to stop them (for whatever reason - politics, being bloated with too many decision makers, losing top execs). This latest acquisition firmly solidifies my belief that Web 2.0 is here to stay and the Nasdaq is on it’s way up. VC’s are pouring money into Web 2.0 companies and top execs are leaving their jobs for a piece of the action - I mean, seriously - making $1.6bn in 18 months is not exactly roughing it. This is not going to stop any time soon and given the exec drain that the titans are going to experience, the only way that they are going to keep ahead is by acquiring top companies and executive teams.

This acquisition is both the best and worst thing for the online industry - I fear for another dot bomb, but at the same time, I think there are a lot of really viable companies out there that will definitely make something happen out of the funding that VC’s are going to keep pouring into this sector. I think a lot of valuable lessons were learnt at the end of the last millenium so hopefully it’s not a mad gold rush this time, but more of a sustained path to great businesses being developed.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This entry was posted on October 10, 2006 at 12:37 am and is filed under: General

Subscribe to this post's RSS feed to follow responses / Trackback

Viewing 5 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    We're still a long way off from the madness of 1999-2000, but certainly a deal like this does raise an eyebrow or two with the potential legal overhang. Mark Cuban's blog is worth a read on YouTube-Google - the original bubble-video-stream-guy from way back when. We do, however, inhabit a very different online marketspace today, one where there are real advertising revenues available and where the big competitors have more than multiples-of-pageviews valuation metrics going for them. There's actually something at stake. All that being said, it's a whopper isn't it?

    I have to agree that medium and long-term though, online is still underhyped, scary as that is to say!
    • ^
    • v
    Another dot-com boom? Heck, I hate it. Hopefully there will be no more of that bomb again. I never thought Google will make this move cause it will trigger big company to bla-bla-bla (legal) their threat again. By the way Rob, Jeremy have written a counter-response Mark Cuban's . You should read it as well.
    • ^
    • v
    As I commented on Techcrunch when rumours of this first appeared, I think this is a match made in heaven. Google will be better placed than any to help YouTube monetise its traffic, steer through stormy legal waters and fix up their abysmal search functionality. YouTube will give Google its best shot at a lucrative product offering outside of core search and well has helping them to grow their existing business into multimedia search.

    Most interesting for me will be to monitor the relative successes of the (sure to be) different approaches to monetising the user-generated web that content-rich, protectionist NewCorp and content-free, openly syndicated Google will adopt. It’s highly likely that both will come up with successful strategies, but I’m betting that there are many web2.0 entrepreneurs out there who will be watching with interest. Personally I hope Google blows them to shreds!

    Mark Cuban may be onto something (though I must admit to not believing this to be the case), but he’s also eating humble pie after brashly stating a couple of weeks ago that no one would touch YouTube. I think that people are too easily preoccupied with the potential for copyright infringement, when the real value of sites such as YouTube is the genuinely amateur fare that is available. An awful phonecam video that we posted on YouTube of the Jose Gonzalez’s gig at The Armchair has been viewed thousands of times in the last few months despite being one of hundreds of versions of the same track! The mind boggles.
    • ^
    • v
    Broken link => Titans http//www.vinnylingham.com/2006/05/the-clash-of-the-titans-a-fresh-perspective.html
    • ^
    • v
    Thanks Rafiq - it's fixed now. There are lots of views on this deal - I really think it was a great deal for Google, but time will tell.

Trackbacks

close Reblog this comment
Powered by Disqus · Learn more
blog comments powered by Disqus

Top Commenters

Powered by Disqus

del.icio.us

Visit my del.icio.us » / RSS

Vinny Lingham is an International Award winning Entrepreneur & Search Engine Marketer. He is currently CEO of Synthasite, a Web 2.0 Startup.

Learn more about Vinny »
RSS Feed

Visit the RSS page to add my feed using your favorite feed reader or subscribe using your email below:

Powered by FeedBlitz
Recent Categories Archives
View All » View All »
General October 2008
Media Coverage September 2008
Synthasite August 2008
Web 2.0 July 2008
Conferences June 2008
Startups May 2008
Featured April 2008
Blogging March 2008
Search Engine Marketing February 2008
Internet Strategy January 2008

Copyright © Vinny Lingham.

Blog / Resources / About / Archives / Contact / RSS