There is a lot of Internet chatter and postings around the Google acquisition of YouTube. The three most insightful postings I have read are:

Mark Cuban was and is still not in favor the deal. He foresees some potential issues with the integration of Google Video and YouTube as he asks:

“It will be interesting to see just how Google reconciles selling videos like Crazy in Love from Sony, when the same video is available as a user upload for free from youtube.”

John Battelle appears to have some questions about how the two companies will coexist after listing to the conference call Monday. ”

I am mixed on this. I think it’s wise to frame this as “the companies will stay separate” kind of acquisition, even if in the end that’s not the intent. But this marks Google’s first significant “out of brand” acquisition, the company’s first true brand-management challenge.”

Shoemoney is the only person that I have read who pointed to the existing Adsense relationship between Google and YouTube. Google has data on how profitable those Adsense campaigns have been and I am sure that “inside” information came in very handy when arriving at a valuation for YouTube.

So is it a good deal? For YouTube owners and employees it is a great deal. As for Google, only time will tell. While Google does search really well, they have had very few successful products that are not search related. It will be interesting watching how they manage YouTube and Google Video oand whether Google Video will eventually go away.

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