November 14, 2006

Today, Google announced that it has completed its acquisition of YouTube. The closing price includes $15 million in cash, 3,217,560 shares of Google Class A Common Stock, along with an additional 442,210 shares of restricted stock and warrants.

Overall, the number of Google shares was determined by dividing the $1.65 billion acquisition price by an average value of stock over the last 30 days. After the transaction, there will be 12.5 percent of the stock held in escrow for one year.

Based on Monday’s closing price of $481.03 per share, the deal is worth $1.775 billion to YouTube's founders.

Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google stated “We are excited to have closed this acquisition in order to begin collaborating to offer the best in quality and depth of content, user experience and new business opportunities for our partners”.

Schmidt added “YouTube and Google will together provide innovative and exciting services for our users that will add a new dimension to on-line media entertainment. We look forward to working with content creators and owners to effectively harness the power of the internet to promote, distribute and monetize their content.”

Schmidt closed by saying “Google’s expertise, technology leadership, and resources will provide us with the flexibility to innovate and build the best, most entertaining service on the Internet".

Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube said "in the coming months, we will roll out many new exciting features and programs to benefit the creativity and participation of our community”.

“This community will remain the most important part of YouTube and we are staying on the same course we set out on nearly one year ago. We will continue to gather and listen to its feedback and are looking forward to the many opportunities that lie ahead” said Hurley.

Source: Tech Crunch