YouTube Denies $1 Billion Valuation, But Okay with $600 Million
from the overshooting dept
Earlier this week, a number of stories with the phrase "$1 billion" in close proximity to "YouTube" were winding their way through the media, after the company was apparently the belle of the ball at Herb Allen's annual Sun Valley rich-guy schmoozefest. It seems pretty clear the unprofitable company (with no appearance of a business plan) isn't worth anything near that, but all the better to fit the Skype Billion-Dollar Buyout Plan, which is based more on hype than business sense or financial performance. But YouTube's founder is clearing the air in an interview with Marketwatch, where he "brushed aside reports that the value of the company jumped to $1 billion from $600 million because of his appearance at the Allen & Co. confab". It's not clear, but the writeup makes it sound like he's okay with a $600 million valuation, but $1 billion, well, that's just ludicrous. Wow, such modesty -- a new face to the media-driven buyout plan, maybe one a willing buyer will reward with another $400 million.
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
by Yet another Anonymous Coward on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 11:44am
Now the best value tube of the Internet!
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Media windfall by Cheapskate on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 12:50pm
I'd be willing to hype them for a lot less than that...say $150 million
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
by Anonymous Coward on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 1:22pm
Please change this to the "One born every minute" department . . .
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Based on?? by fsckr on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 1:31pm
I'm not sure I get it, what is their valuation based on?
Their millions of users?? Well I have thousands of users on my site. Can I claim its value as being in the millions? Probably not. So what I want to know is: why the elevated valuations?
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
The internet is a series of tubes by tehdirtaddict on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 1:37pm
if 1 is worth $600 million, how much are worth therest :D
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Media windfall by Anonymous Coward on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 2:49pm
on what account?
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
by You people are all wrong here... on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 2:53pm
They are worth 2 Billion. The future potential of youtube is the sky.
Get a life and learn to recognize a bargain when you see one!
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
by dude on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 3:24pm
I like beer
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
by Anonymous Coward on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 5:13pm
Sex Kills!
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Wow by Sean on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 7:04pm
I'd love to be that guy. Though I can see how they valuated how it's worth 600 million. With how many users there are you could basically put some ads up there and make them pay millions of dollars just to put them on.
That's my two cents.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Wow by thecyrusvirus on Jul 29th, 2006 @ 7:21am
Two cents is about what i'd pay for an ad on YouTube. Lots and lots of their video content is streamed and played through other sites and links in blogs so a large proportion of youtube bandwidth isnt even from site visitors.
They have no real target demographic or niche market so ads there will have a minute click-through rate and be to all intents and purposes pointless.
Anyone willing to pay large sums for ads on YouTube would have to be head shot
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
by Lord Gauron on Jul 29th, 2006 @ 5:19pm
They could have ads in their video streams. Before the "real content".
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
The longer they fly solo by Fire Isiah NOW and save us on Jul 30th, 2006 @ 3:32pm
...the more money they will burn. The larger their viewer base, the more money they will burn. There is no economy of scale here. If the big media houses don't buy youtube out (but set up their own video sites)...then youtube is SOL. How many more years can the VCs fund them? 1 million dollar burnrate a month is what I heard. Let this sucka fly solo for another year...then we'll see it crash.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Media windfall by DittoBox on Jul 30th, 2006 @ 10:40pm
Screw that! I'd take 10 million! (gotta save some for a McLaren or Koenigsegg, or something more modest like an Aston Martin...)
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Youtube is worth $500 billion !!!! by eric martin on Jul 31st, 2006 @ 2:08pm
Easily !
Everyone loves crappy low res macromedia flash movies !
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Add Your Comment