1.65 Billion USD wow. After the announcement below, let the suing (for copyright) begin!
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
Source: Google Press Center: Press Release
I've been listening to Google's investor conference call at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html the big take aways seem to be that both YouTube and Google video will continue as before, because of their brands and their communities, and that Google will be doing more to protect the rights of copyright holders - though it's not clear how that's going to work. This could be bad for Google, now there's a company owning YouTube who have deep pockets.
On the other hand of course it could be bad for the RIAA as Google aren't going to be pushed around, nor intimidated by the RIAA who are tiny compared to Google. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Google hasn't squared things away with the RIAA prior to taking over YouTube.
Interesting comment from both Sergei and Eric that this is the next generation of the Internet and it's being driven by social networks and video.
Update: 10/10/2006 - Hmmm, looks like I was right about Google squaring away the RIAA