Michael Calore

Google May Announce YouTube Acquisition Today

Update 1:56PM: The deal is done. Google has purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Read more. After days of rumors and speculation, the GoogTube dream may actually become a reality. Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times‘ blog DealBook is reporting that Google and YouTube are holding separate board meetings today to discuss […]

Youtube_logoUpdate 1:56PM: The deal is done. Google has purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. Read more.

After days of rumors and speculation, the GoogTube dream may actually become a reality.

Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times' blog DealBook is reporting that Google and YouTube are holding separate board meetings today to discuss an acquisition, and that the announcement could come at the close of the stock market today.

After marathon negotiations over the weekend, Google could announce a deal to buy YouTube.com, the popular video-sharing Web site, for about $1.6 billion as early as Monday afternoon, people involved in the talks said... Discussions could still break down, however, or another party could present a more-attractive offer.

Negotiations between Google and YouTube began in earnest late last week after a lower bid from Google was initially rebuffed, these people said.

The timing is interesting, especially considering that Google and YouTube both announced distribution deals with media corporations today. As we noted in the Morning Reboot, Google will distribute music videos from Warner Music and Sony BMG artists, as well as sell downloads of select titles for $1.99. YouTube, which inked a deal with Warner Music last month, added Universal Music, Sony BMG and CBS to its list of partners. CBS will create its own channel on YouTube for CBS shows like Survivor.

These deals, which were officially announced today, could point to the road map that the two companies will follow if the planned acquisition takes place. It's no secret that YouTube hosts gobs of copyrighted videos, and while they are cleaning up the situation, they are still in danger of being sued for content piracy and copyright violations. With several major media companies on board and with Google in their corner, YouTube might just dodge the bullet – all of those companies which were intent on suing YouTube could see the acquisition as an opening to a distribution deal with what would be the biggest video site on the web.