YouTube's Got a Fat Idea of Itself
YouTube won't sell itself for anything less than $1.5 billion.
But that number far exceeds the price top media execs appear willing to pay for a company many believe lacks a sustainable business model.
"If they were willing to take $200 million to $300 million, I would buy it tomorrow," a senior industry source told The Post.
In November 2005, YouTube received $3.5 million in seed money from typically ahead-of-the-curve Silicon Valley heavyweight VC firm Sequoia Capital, the same shop that helped birth Google. In April 2006, the video upstart received an additional $8 million from Sequoia.
Since then, YouTube's potential valuation has skyrocketed, jumping from $600 million last spring to $1 billion after this year's Allen Sun Valley powwow for media bigs, where the site's young cofounder and CEO Chad Hurley was the belle of the ball.
Now YouTube's "magic number" stands at more than $1.5 billion, according to a senior industry source. Potential suitors include Viacom, Disney, AOL, eBay, and News Corp., the parent company of The Post.
A YouTube spokesperson said the company is more interested in building "a long-term viable company. And we don't comment on rumors and speculation." A Sequoia spokesperson did not return calls for comment.
2 votes
