Damn i like youtube the way it was, watch that shit become gay wit advertisements before vids and the blockin of TV clips
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Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion
October 9, 2006 12:58 PM PDT
Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, the companies announced Monday after the close of the stock market.
The deal, which had been rumored for days, will dramatically improve Google's video-sharing service with one of the Internet's hottest properties in YouTube, which allows Net users to upload video clips and share them with the world, for better or worse. YouTube will operate independently, and the companies will work together on building new features for independent users as well as for aspiring directors, they said in a press release. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Google's acquisition of YouTube comes as online video is really starting to hit its stride. As more and more people have signed up for broadband Internet connections and the technology behind video-sharing services has improved, traffic to YouTube's site has skyrocketed as users upload videos of themselves sharing the minute details of their lives, dancing to popular music or, more controversially, clips of popular television shows.
One early example of the phenomenon was the frenzy around the Saturday Night Live sketch comedy "Lazy Sunday" video, which NBC first demanded that YouTube pull from its site after people flocked to the hilarious rap song featuring two mild-mannered cast members afflecting gangsta-rap personas while recalling a trip to the movies to see the Chronicles of Narnia. But YouTube later cut a deal with NBC to allow YouTube users to post content from NBC programs, and it has followed up that deal with others involving companies such as Warner Music and on Monday, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and CBS.
Around 100 million videos are available on YouTube on a given day, with 65,000 new videos added every day, according to the company's Web site. It cited numbers from Nielsen Net Ratings in claiming 20 million unique visitors a month.
Sequoia Partners provided the original funding of $3.5 million in November 2005, and followed that up with a second $8 million round of funding in April.
