Google makes video play with YouTube buy | CNET News.com
Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, the companies announced Monday.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.
“This is one of many investments that Google will be making to put video at the heart of a user’s online experience,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a conference call after the deal was announced. “When we looked at the marketplace and saw what was going on, we saw a clear winner in the social networking side of video, and that’s what drove us to start the conversations with YouTube.”
