Recapping Coverage Of Google's Acquisition Of YouTube
I don’t have a ton to say about the Google acquisition of YouTube. That’s
because to me, it’s more an eyeball landgrab than a search development. There’s
no doubt people search for video on YouTube, and getting the leading property
will help Google. But the searching isn’t the deep dive video search involving
transcripts linked to video clips or other technological advances you might
think Google would want in a more in a true search deal. This, to me, is
basically YouTube as a hot property that Google hasn’t been able to replicate
with its own Google Video.
In particular, Google sees online video ads as a big step forward in
generating revenue (rather than organizing information). Getting YouTube makes
much sense, in that regard. YouTube has the eyeballs watching video. Google
wants to shove ads in front of those eyeballs.
Various people see sense in YouTube diving for the copyright cover that
Google’s somehow supposedly going to extend. I don’t know what super copyright
protection technology they’re expecting Google to cook up. To date, Google has
had plenty of copyright violations it struggles with.
Overall, the biggest takeaway for me is how the YouTube purchase is the end
of an era of Google buying small. To date, most purchases have been tiny. But
with loads of cash in its pockets, Google’s jumped into the second round of
billion dollar purchases of web sites that’s been going on.
Some headlines from the
ample coverage out
there that particularly caught my eye.
Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock – Press release
covering the $1.65 billion all stock deal leaving YouTube to operate
independently, with the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.- Google-YouTube WebCast
– Follow the links on this page to watch the press conference from yesterday.
Ironically, I can’t find the conference having been posted to Google Video or
YouTube. A Message From Chad
and Steve is a video message about the sale from YouTube’s cofounders. - SeekingAlpha’s
Google Transcripts – Transcripts of Google’s financial discussions often
posted here. So far, one from the deal is not up. That might change, though
perhaps not, since this wasn’t an earnings call.
Google to Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion – New York Times overview
coverage, noting that Microsoft, Yahoo, Viacom and News Corporation were also
interested. YouTube to stay mainly independent. YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley
said his company wanted to stay independent and the sale makes it “still the
case.” We’ll see.- Google
Looks To Boost Ads With YouTube – Wall Street Journal overview coverage,
paid subscription required. Nice chart on some past Google acquisitions. Nice
detail on YouTube rejecting an earlier lower offer from Google and Yahoo’s 24
hour offer expiring, with Yahoo having concerns about copyright and revenue
issues. Touches on the deal threatening to create a rift between Google and
News Corp, which owns MySpace, the biggest property in the ad deal Google and
News Corp signed in August.
Google to buy YouTube in its biggest deal yet – Reuters overview coverage.
Google snaps up YouTube for $1.65B – Associated Press overview coverage.
Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion – Niall Kennedy points out how
the purchase price is similar to eBay’s huge acquisition price of PayPal.
What Google’s YouTube deal means for Microsoft – Seattle Press
Intelligencer looks at Microsoft thinking Google paid too much.
I still think Google is crazy 🙂 – Mark Cuban figures one copyright
lawsuit will put Google out of business. Perhaps. Then again, we heard that
about click fraud. What happened? Google paid an incredibly tiny amount to
wipe out click fraud exposure in the US and continues to rake in the profits.
Google does have digital rights management on video it sells, unlike what he
says. And since YouTube apparently has one copyright case against it already,
Google’s already getting into that hot water now. Time will tell how it plays
out.
YouTube, your copyright and Google – News.com has a nice look at copyright
issues with YouTube, such as takedown notices and automatic detection.- Google YouTube
Conference Call – Search Engine Journal with conference call coverage.
Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion – Silicon Valley Watcher with
conference call coverage.
First Blush on GooTube – Conference Call – John Battelle with some
conference call coverage. I’m with him on the point that Blogger was an
out-of-brand purchase for Google, as was Deja before that — but neither
approached this scale or degree of autidence.
Google/YouTube Conference Call – InsideGoogle with conference call
coverage.
GOOG-YouTube: Conference Call: No Name Change; Audio – PaidContent on
conference call coverage.
Google Purchases YouTube for $1.65B – Google Watch, with this quote from
the conference call from Sergey Brin: “We spend a lot of time working on our
two core areas of search and advertising,” said Brin. “And when you think
about search, when you want an explanation about something, what better way
than to actually see it in video?” Also notes Google Video’s not going away.
Google Acquires YouTube, Becomes the Archetypal Media Company – The
story’s pretty short, but I liked this headline and Publishing 2.0. Yes, spare
us the argument Google’s not a media company. YouTube is simply another way
Google will effectively own lots and lots of media to show ads.- One way to
look at it – Very short post by Blogger founder Evan Williams, and right
on target: “It’s a great example of how and why a focused startup can compete
with the big guys. Google not only had a video product that was a competitor,
they started it before YouTube existed. Then YouTube came along an kicked
their butt into paying through the nose for them.”
Googlers are
surprised from him also notes three Googlers expressing disbelief or
amazement.
Deal creates new Valley stars – San Jose Mercury News with good backstory
on the birth of YouTube.