The big news from this weekend comes from a rumor out of Variety magazine that says that Youtube is looking to buy Twitch.TV. The pricetag? ONE BILLION DOLLARS! That’s some serious Google money right there.
Both Twitch and Google have not commented on the rumor, but according to Variety’s “familiar sources” Google is not only preparing for the acquisition, but also preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the acquisition. Apparently the acquisition can be looked at as anticompetitive, as Youtube is already the main place to watch videos on the internet.
Twitch.TV recently ranked fourth in peak internet traffic in the U.S. Yes, people are watching game streams more than they are checking their Facebook or watching their favorite shows on Hulu. In fact, Twitch was ranked higher than Valve and Steam was, meaning that people watched streams of games more than they actually played those very same games! Twitch.TV accounted for 1.8 percent of ALL PEAK INTERNET TRAFFIC! It was only beaten by Netflix, Google, and Apple, which an likely be attributed to massive use of the App store.