Google Buys YouTube

Google has acquired YouTube, the video sharing website, for $1.65 billion (£884 million) in a stock transaction.

YouTube will continue to operate independently to maintain its brand identity.

In a statement, Google said that the combined companies will focus on providing a more comprehensive experience for users sharing videos and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, said: “The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

“Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.”

Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, said: “Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture. By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners.

“I’m confident that with this partnership we’ll have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide.”

In recently released research, Nielsen//NetRatings said that during 2006 YouTube’s audience has grown 606%, whilst in the same period Google’s has grown 3% and Google Video’s has grown 54% (see Google Continues Negotiations To Buy YouTube).

In September, online analyst HitWise revealed that YouTube is the most popular video sharing website in the UK (see YouTube Is Most Popular Video Sharing Website In UK)

Google: 020 7031 3000 www.google.co.uk/ YouTube: www.youtube.com