Yahoo’s Charge Against YouTube May Be Fuelled By $300 Million Acquisition

Its no secret that Yahoo wants to take on YouTube. The Google owned video site is the largest in the world, boasting over 12.6 billion views in January, according to stats released by comScore. Obviously catching up to it will take a lot of time. Yahoo has tried acquiring stakes in major online video sites in the past but it hasn’t exactly been too lucky. Apparently now it has set its sights on video syndication service News Distribution Network. According to the Wall Street Journal, people briefed on the matter claim Yahoo may pay as much as $300 million for NDN.

Last year Yahoo tried to buy a controlling stake in Dailymotion, but reportedly the French government was opposed to the deal. It also made a bid for Hulu, but the owners decided not to sell, so Yahoo struck out as well. The company did get rights to popular shows like Saturday Night Live and even hired popular TV personality Katie Couric to serve as “Global Anchor.” It also launched an app called Yahoo Screen, which includes clips from licensed content.

NDN doesn’t actually make its own video content. It simply makes over 100,000 videos available from partners like local TV news stations to editors at major websites such as Bloomberg, New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times. With 573 million video views in January, NDN is the fourth largest video website so far this year. It offers clips on a variety of topics such as politics, news, sports and more. Have the syndication service under its belt would allow Yahoo to expand its video business to countless new websites.

However, the sources claim that talks between Yahoo and News Distribution Network are still in a very early stage. The possibility exists that it may take a while before a deal is reached, or the talks may fall through altogether.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: Yahoo, YouTube