[discobay]

How did they arrive at the figure of USD 1.65billion (in Google shares)? Was the start figure a paltry 100million that was pushed up by the YouTube owners? I'm fairly sure that 100million is more than even the owners valued their business. Do these deals attract a tax in the US? That may account for the 0.05billion!

[KnowItAll]

Bubble 2.0 in my opinion.

From google's standpoint, not a bad investment as they paid in shares. From the owners standpoint, even if the share price halves, they've made some spare change.

What we have to do though is look at cases like Napster.

-- Revolutionary stuff to begin with
-- Fastest growing "thing" at its time
-- Bertelsmann bought it to turn it into a legal download mechanism
-- People moved on to torrent and other mechanisms
-- napster sued and turned off
-- Now .. just a software company which is one of many

Not saying the folks at Google are "idiots" like Mark Cuban put it.

Here are some good links ..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10...tube_analysis/
(Andrew is a well known Google hater)

http://www.blogmaverick.com/
(Mark Cuban is the guy who sold broadcast.com to Yahoo for 5.x billion during Bubble 1.0)

http://news.com.com/OK,+so+Eric+Schm...3-6124144.html

With a salute to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the dumbing down of America is hardly news anymore. Fact is that much of the contributed material you'll find on YouTube makes for a monumental waste of an evening. Is it any coincidence that YouTube's become one of the most popular Web sites in cyberspace?

[lionrock88]

Originally Posted by discobay

How did they arrive at the figure of USD 1.65billion (in Google shares)? Was the start figure a paltry 100million that was pushed up by the YouTube owners? I'm fairly sure that 100million is more than even the owners valued their business. Do these deals attract a tax in the US? That may account for the 0.05billion!

It does appear to be a sky high valuation.

Apparently, USD 1.6bn was the minimum asking price that YouTube's founders and investors were seeking. Recent deals that probably had an influence was a 5% purchase in Facebook.com for USD 100mm (valuing the company at a cool USD 2bn!) and of course, News Corp's acquisition of MySpace for USD 580mm back in 2005 - generally considered to be a great deal.

The fact that Yahoo were also bidding and that Microsoft and News Corp were rumored to be preparing bids may have incited Google to quickly come up with a generous offer to seal the deal quickly.

Whether this is a good deal for Google remains to be seen and it obviously depends on their ability to monetise the site.

In any case, it must be feel damn good to be one of the co-founders or early investors in YouTube right now!

[KnowItAll]

Sequoia Capital.

I need to dig up some of my bubble 1.0 conversations with Mr Moritz, from 1997... have a feeling they're lost on some old computer.

[discobay]

What would you do now if you were one of the co-founders? I would sell those Google shares and get a new pda (and some other things too).

[KnowItAll]

I'm sure they'll be able to get a few million out of it ASAP .. the rest would most probably be structured into how much they can sell at what time, depending on performance etc etc etc ..

[lionrock88]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

Sequoia Capital.

I need to dig up some of my bubble 1.0 conversations with Mr Moritz, from 1997... have a feeling they're lost on some old computer.

KIA.. what were you doing talking to good ol' Mikey back in the day? Seeking investors for GeoClicks?

[KnowItAll]

Nah ... unrelated bubble 1.0 stuff

[lionrock88]

So did you get in on the bubble 1.0 action?

[donabel_beltran]

Any bets on which "indie" dot-com business will go sell itself next?