Steve and I have been debating the sale of YouTube. Steve thinks that 1.6 billion dollars is a whole lot for a company that just started up less than a year ago and has yet to turn a profit. He said that the "guys on the street" are saying that this smells of the 90s internet bubble.
1.6 billion is big money, but YouTube is a really interesting product. It brings together several of the different hords of people on the Internet. It attracts the MySpace, social-networking types. It has something for the serious wonks and political wingnuts with clips of political officials making errors. It has something for the people who are too busy to watch TV as people record the highlights of the Daily Show. My brother just spent hours on YouTube catching up on the whole Borat thing, since he’s too lame to have a TV. It’s the perfect outlet for scandal; the next time Paris Hilton gets caught with her knickers down, it’s going to show up on YouTube. People also feel more comfortable expressing themselves through video than word-based blogs.
OK, now watch this.
Apt. 11d 
$1.6 billion is a whole lot of money, but no one is talking about money. It was straight stock deal, from what I read.
Google has a market cap of about $130 billion. So Google spent a little more than 1% of their entire market value to buy YouTube. Did they add more than 1% of value to their company with the purchase? I’d say yeah.
LikeLike