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Report: YouTube Buying Twitch.tv For $1 Billion
Variety reports that Google's YouTube unit has reached a deal with Twitch.tv to buy the game-streaming service for $1 billion. From the article:
"The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. ... YouTube is preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the Twitch deal, according to sources. YouTube is far and away the No. 1 platform for Internet video, serving more than 6 billion hours of video per month to 1 billion users worldwide, and the company expects the Justice Department to take a hard look at whether buying Twitch raises anticompetitive issues in the online-video market."
For mysterious reasons that will be 'explained' only by spokesweasels emitting word salad, this will become the Big Bad Scary antitrust issue of the day, while the rapid consolidation of physical network infrastructure (despite the radically higher barriers to entry) will quietly recede into the background.
Bummer =/
This channel has been suspended due to multiple copyright claims from Nintendo of America.
it seems like the only one not making a billion dollars these days is me...
the amount of cash it costs to make live video is not cheap twitch is not really a money maker look at other game streaming sites they all went bottom up becouse of that reason.
twich doesnt have a ton of users compared to youtube and the biggest streams usually dont do twitch advertising but get sponsorship deals.
on the other hand google does have the servers available for it so if the rumour is true (which i doubt) it could be cheaper then expected to run the service
I thought only Microsoft and Apple bought companies for their technology? Google is doing it AGAIN?!?!
Where'z teh innovations!?!?!?!!1111?!
Just not from Google. I hope this deal gets shot down.
Checkbox: Automatically convert your archived videos to Youtube.com videos permanently?
God spoke to me
Since by YouTube's standards, everything on Twitch is a 'copyright violation' (streaming footage of a video game and completely ignoring that most of it is Fair Use with added content) I really have to wonder how they intend to deal with the corporate trolls who are now going to descend on Twitch like the vultures they are.
I imagine that will involve giving most of the money currently going to the content creators to the copyright asserters. The RIAA model.
Extinguish.
I know Twitch TV and Justin TV are closely linked. I think in fact that Twitch is an offshoot of JTV and the user accounts are shared. Is YouTube buying JTV as well, will JTV go on independently, or will JTV be shut down?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Yeah! Lolz! Videoz! They can have my harddrivez if I can watch videoz! Woot! I'm a teenager and I don't vote because... Videoz!
In related news, it appears Yahoo still has cash reserves to spend on more failures.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
How can it be anticompetitive when its a free service?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Twitching in fear?
Maybe google can find a way to make the video streaming less awful. They can hardly make it worse!
-josh
Back when I was a kid the last millenium (80-90s), a billion as a lot of money. It was a domain that only Bill Gates and a handful of other chosen few were allowed to occupy. Now every damn internet start up is getting a billion each at least, often in the double digits.
Shit with absolutely no real world business prospects to justify the price they command. Are we in Internet bubble 2.0?
I haven't laughed so hard since Apple bought Beats.
I can certainly understand the appeal of watching game replays and "let's plays" - heck I watch them myself. But why is live playing popular? In particular, why is it sufficiently popular that it's worth $1B in Google change?
It's kinda amazing Google feels Twitch is worth $1B at all (assuming the report is true). Are people so depressed with life that they must obsess with games to the point where a games-related company can be valued that much? No wonder we're so far behind on actually important tech - all the money's going to gaming. And I say this as an occasional gamer.
/Buzz "DCMA takedowns.... DCMA takedowns everywhere!"
If they guarantee that neither they, nor any company that owns them or is associated will ever make any money from the service, then I don't think it's anti-competitive. What has the price of the service got to do with anything by the way?
Twitch.tv are pretty big. They can get 50-100k live viewers on dota 2 streams, which are typically hours long. That has to be worth something.
right next to that 48.5 billion article doesn't it
Maybe it will start to work correctly at last.
With a 2-3% inflation you get a doubling of price every 23 to 35 years. So 1 billion today is equivalent to 350 million $ in 1980 and 550 million dollar in 1990. So not so "big" anymore.... I used this by the way : http://www.bls.gov/data/inflat... very useful to compare money amounts.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
Why would regulators care at all about this deal? Twitch isn't a public company.
Whether a company is traded publicly or not is irrelevant to anti-trust concerns. The only thing that being a publicly traded company means is that the stock is traded on an exchange. That's all. Many large companies are not publicly traded and anti-trust regulators are concerned with whether the merger will adversely affect consumers and competition in the market. Whether the stock is traded on a stock exchange is completely unimportant to the analysis.
If CNN bought Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC would there be less competition in TV news? Of course. I don't see how payment or lack of payment has anything to do with whether or not two companies are competing .
That said, people DO effectively pay for YouTube and Twitch. You pay in the form of ads watched. Google converts those ad views to cash just as surely as they'd convert credit card numbers to cash if you paid by credit card.
Does Twitch really compete with YouTube? Probably not, but that's because Twitch is a speciality boutique and YouTube is a mass merchandiser. I don't think the form of payment has much to do with it.
I'm slightly confused.... is Youtube buying Twitch or is Google's wholly owned subsidiary (Youtube) buying Twitch?
It's a distinction without a difference. YouTube is a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. It would be equally accurate to say YouTube is buying Twitch, Google's subsidiary YouTube is buying Twitch, or Google is buying Twitch. In the end equation they all mean the same thing for all practical purposes. There are some subtle accounting ramifications regarding whether YouTube or Google actually is the the buying entity but nothing you or I will care about in the slightest.
Maybe it really isn't shit today and the US currency has actually devalued this much?
I think you may be confused about what currency devaluation means relative to other currencies. The mere fact that a dollar buys fewer Euros than it used to is only bad if you are trying import goods. If you are exporting goods (and we do a lot of that) then it means your products are more competitive. The Chinese have intentionally kept their currency relatively "weak" compared to the dollar in large part because it makes their exports less expensive compared with the competition. Japanese car companies have been doing fairly well lately in large part because the Yen has depreciated significantly against other major currencies.
A "weak" currency is only a bad thing if you are trying to reduce exports and increase imports. If you want to reduce the trade gap with China then you WANT a somewhat weaker dollar and a stronger yuan. If you want US companies to be able to sell their products overseas then you WANT a weaker dollar.
the prices paid for "strategic acquisitions" are way inflated
I would certainly argue that some of the acquisitions I've seen lately (looking at you Facebook) are WAY too expensive. Facebook buying WhatsApp for $19 billion makes zero economic sense that I can discern. I don't know enough about Twitch to properly evaluate this acquisition but the valuation to a casual observation seems a bit rich for a website that hasn't been in existence even 3 years yet. Google certainly has the money and their track record isn't bad but if I were a shareholder I'd seriously wonder how careful Google was being with cash.
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the company expects the Justice Department to take a hard look at whether buying Twitch raises anticompetitive issues in the online-video market
So when is the DoJ going to "take a hard look" at the FCC's new fast-lane policy for "raising anticompetitive issues in the online-video market"?
If the FCC's new rules existed since the internet's inception, there would have been no Youtube or TwitchTV.
That's a very shortsighted view and brought to you by the same people who tell you that inflation is a good thing as they help themselves to the wealth you earned.
If you think it is shortsighted, prove where my logic is wrong. Show how weakening currencies do not actually aid exports and strengthening currencies do not aid imports. When you do that, publish some peer reviewed papers and collect your Nobel Prize. (because if you actually can prove that you will win one)
Furthermore, nobody says "inflation is a good thing". Ideally we would want neither inflation nor deflation but that is impossible to ensure for a lot of reasons including because human populations do not remain constant even if you hold the money supply fixed. We know from experience that a lot of inflation or deflation is very bad. We also know from experience that the effects of a little inflation is not as bad as the effects of a little deflation. So we try our best to ensure there is a modest amount of inflation, somewhere between 0%-5%. If you think I'm wrong, prove it, publish it, and collect your second Nobel Prize.
I have no doubt Google will fuck the shit out of Twitch if this happens just like they have done with Youtube
Well maybe YOU are paying for youtube and twitch through ads. The smarter examples of our species, such as myself, don't ever have to see an ad. At all. Ever.
Wow. I haven't seen true chink spam on here in ages. I'm used to the old school /. tradition of GNAA, APK, hot grits and goatse. But fucking shoes???? Well now you've got my attention. Please tell me more!
Oh and APK can fuck his own goatse-resembling ass with his goddamned HOSTS file!
I wonder if they'll develop their own xplit type of tool, with all the bells and whistles included, and give it away.