Go Bears, sorry for the overlap. Just got the press release.
Interesting:
Stock for stock deal valued at $1.65bn. I would really love to see their valuation sheet. YouTube shall continue to "operate independently" in order to preserve brand and community. Let's see for how long.
That does not make sense. Keeping the brand: yes. But keeping separate operations: no way. Where are the synergies then?
1 comment:
I can find two reasons for this deal:
1) If you cannot fight them, join them. Google Video turned out to be a big flop, when compared to YouTube. Google's bet on the online video market just didn't work out. So, what do you do when you're sitting on a big pile of cash? Buy the competetion.
2) As with the MySpace deal, I can see this deal as another step for Google to perfect they're targeted ads. Their goal is to know as much as possible about YOU. With MySpace they now know where do you live and study, your job, your tastes in music, film & books, who your friends are, how do you look like, etc (that is, if you're not using a fake profile...). Now, with YouTube they will know even more about you! What short films do you watch, which ones do you post and recommend. Again, I believe all this is just another step for the ultimate targeted and highly relevant ad.
Having said that, I really want to see how Google will crack the advertising problem with YouTube. They have a huge risk of posting a few ads and creating a massive negative reaction from the users. Besides, YouTube has not been having any major issues (at least, lots of them) due to copyrighted material, because they've not been making any money from it. As soon as they make $1 from a copyrighted unlicensed music video or TV episode, law suits will come from everywhere.
Post a Comment