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YouTube Won't Sell For Less Than $1.5 Billion

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the quite-a-few-flash-ads dept.

Joel from Sydney writes "According to a report in the New York Post, YouTube has informed potential buyers it won't be sold for anything less than $1.5 billion. The report lists Viacom, Disney, AOL, eBay and News Corp as potential buyers. Given that News Corp purchased MySpace last year for $580 million, is this a realistic figure?" From the article: "YouTube's stated business model is to 'pursue advertising,' but potential advertisers might be skittish considering industry estimates that roughly 90 percent of the content viewed on its site violates copyright laws. And at least one giant, Universal Music, is threatening to sue the company if its artists' songs keep appearing there. As it tries to focus on videos that don't use content owned by media companies, it yesterday launched the YouTube Underground, a contest to 'discover the most talented unsigned bands and musicians on YouTube,' backed by Cingular Wireless, Gibson Guitar and ABC's 'Good Morning America.'"

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. If you consider Yahoo buying Broadcast.com.... by postbigbang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    for about $2B, then it's not so much. And Broadcast.com (Mark Cuban's "invention") didn't really work yet. And I'll bet he's grousing that his current HD venture can't get that figure because it's not as evolved, and certainly not as popular as YouTube.

    The price is huge, but it's not out of line with web-based social properties. Not that it's fair.... but the future revenues if it's managed well could be very big.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  2. It will go the Napster, Kazaa, eDonkey way by SanderDJ · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The first time I looked at YouTube was not so long ago. I was shocked to see how easy it was to find complete video clips, including the copyright notice at the end.

    Really, enjoy it while you can, because the record companies will sue YouTube into the ground. Soon.

    So this company will not be worth anything in a year.

  3. Sheeeesh... it would take that much just to by HighOrbit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ....pay for the bandwidth. How do they manage to pay for it now? I'd love to see some figures on their revenue vs costs.

  4. Re:Web 2.0 ... by hackstraw · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Wow, now its a 5 step plan, pretty soon 12 :)

    Yeah, we all laughed at the sock puppet and the Superbowl ads, but there is still mega-profit in the .com world.

    The coolest thing is that I heard on the news the other day where people at the other megacorps are realizing that there is profit in copyright infringement. Madonna's people are OK for uploaded stuff on youtube because they realize its free advertising. Much like the bands that allow taping of their concerts (we are looking at you Bob Weir). Who knows, maybe we can soon buy music in unencumbered digital formats at real market value. Maybe.