Sony takes a $65 million cash leap into the video sharing space. Cool.
I just signed up for an account. Pretty easy process. BUT, a nightmare on Safari and not the easy-one click loading process they promised me to WordPress. Then again, I am an no techno wiz.
I have read the chain of Grouper stories over at TechCrunch and based on the valuation, YouTube would be worth $2 billion. Expect the blogosphere and even regular media to be buzzing with this one.
Of course, just a month ago when YouTube was in the media for claiming to be woth $1 billion, the blogosphere was abuzz with skepticism. I took the opposite view and thought $1 billion was a buy . Nice double (in the fantasy world that I live in :) )
It’s an absolute rounding error to Sony so if they can figure out how to work it into their collosal infrastructure, it is cheap. The likelihood of them doing that – let’s just say YA RIGHT ! :) :) :) :) :)
In a cool foreshadowing of their buyout, check out the funny video of Grouper kicking their competitor’s butts:
The video comments that Grouper allows is pretty damn cool as well.
I guess congrats are in order…
UPDATE – Pete Cashmore , a smart web 2.0 dude, says this about the deal:
Where are the synergies? Grouper and Sony claim that the pairing of connected devices with Grouper’s web and desktop sharing will be a big win, and Grouper’s P2P platform could also be used for movie distribution. What’s pretty clear is that this is a technology buy, since Grouper hadn’t even made a dent in web-based services like MySpace Video, YouTube and Yahoo Video.
Also – Minic has lots of blogosphere links on the subject.
If I can just get Mr. Angry to do a 60 secong piece on why Revver is the best of all, things would be great!
“I took the opposite view and thought $1 billion was a buy . Nice double (in the fantasy world that I live in )”
Hilarious.
Great call w/ the video commenting feature, that alone is nice.
You’re also right that the purchase price is a rounding error for sony, and it also sounds like they’re most interested in Groupers p2p technology…
What’s annoying is:
1) the auto play of the movie
2) the fact that other movies instantly play after the original ends
I agree with the annoying things – thats what sony will probably keep :)
I agree with Fraser’s points about the downsides. Still, that video commenting is pretty interesting. Plus Grouper is supported by WordPress so I might look into it.
The wordpress thing did not work for me though Mr. Angry – please dont yell at me sir. :)
the blog nazi would be a funny character for you.
The video clip is pretty funny. And the video commenting functionality is very cool