Sony in Deal to Acquire Grouper
Sony Pictures Entertainment plans to announce on Wednesday that it has acquired Grouper, a Web site featuring videos contributed by users, for $65 million.
The deal marries one of the biggest and most powerful movie studios, which regularly spends more than $100 million on a film, with a Web site that provides free access to short and often inexpensively made videos on topics like pets, sports and music.
Michael Lynton, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures, said the investment was a bet that material posted by users would continue to be a big draw online.
“My sense is that user-based content is a form of content that’s going to last,” Mr. Lynton said. “It’s a bet, no question, but it’s a bet worth making.”
Despite its emphasis on letting users share homemade videos, many of the most popular clips on Grouper are slick short productions, including music videos and commercials.
Grouper is getting eight million visitors a month, up from a million in March, according to Josh Felser, its co-president and co-founder.
Nielsen/NetRatings counts 430,000 visitors for Grouper in July, but Mr. Felser said that service undercounted traffic because, he said, it extrapolated the number of visitors from survey data.
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