Video sharing and social networking site YouTube.com is the target of a €1.6bn takeover by search engine and advertising giant Google.
YouTube.com has become one of the fastest growing and popular sites on the internet, enabling users to instantly search, upload and download their favourite music, TV moments, movie trailers, cartoons and even their own creations.
The YouTube.com site delivers more than 100 million video clips a day.
Despite the millions of people that visit the company’s site every day, it has yet to make a profit. However, in the fast-moving world of internet advertising, the site’s ability to attract traffic faster than television makes it a powerful proposition in terms of eye-balls.
Google is believed to be currently in discussions to acquire YouTube.com for US$1.6bn. However, it is understood that other power shapers of the internet world are also vying for YouTube.com.
Microsoft, Viacom, Yahoo! and Rupert Murdock’s News Corp are all understood to have visited YouTube.com’s Californian HQ to enquire about buying the company.
Last year Murdock acquired a similar player to YouTube.com called MySpace.com for US$650m.
YouTube.com has more than 50 million registered users and the estimated price tag of US$1.6m works out at US$32 per user.
By John Kennedy
