Being a member of the GooglePress Group distribution list, yesterday started out interesting enough with the successive announcements related to the deals signed by Google with content providers Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group to distribute their video content through a shared ad revenue scheme of sorts. Then of course the big bomb hit when they announced the planned $1.65 Billion acquisition of YouTube within the year.
The best thing about this move is their announcement to retain the existing YouTube brand along with their existing team, which is somewhat similar to the acquisition of blogging service LiveJournal by fellow blogging company Six Apart some time back, which felt more like a friend merging of companies rather than one larger company consuming the other.
Of course this leaves Google with two main issues - one to turn YouTube into a solid revenue generating enterprise while at the same time dealing with the potential copyright issues plagued by all video sharing sites today. With a combined majority market share between YouTube and Google Video, interested groups are certainly going to pay notice to the new video giant.
Of course while the lawyers start working on the fine print and dotting all their "I's" and crossing their "T's", the rest of the world is left to just enjoy the wave of media coverage and support from the global internet community.
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