Google Viacom: What Money Cannot Buy
May 26, 2010
When egos collide, interesting events emerge. “Google Offered Viacom $592 Million for Content” reveals that big money was alleged offered prior to the incendiary litigation between Google and Viacom. That’s a big number and suggests that someone at Google saw some value in having a monetized relationship with Viacom.
But the really fascinating part of the write up, if accurate, is that the co-president of the Math Club has a bad memory. Here’s the passage I found most revealing:
In three hours of questioning by Viacom lawyers, Page couldn’t remember a single significant detail about Google’s acquisition of YouTube. Consider that Page has earned a Ph.D in computer science from Stanford, helped build one of the most powerful advertising vehicles of all time, and is one of the top three executives in a company that generated $23 billion in revenue last year. Yet, he can’t remember important and basic facts about his company’s biggest acquisition or even some about his own company. Page was asked whether he remembered discussing YouTube’s potential copyright problems prior to the acquisition. He was asked whether he discussed with other company leaders and advisers the $1.65 billion price Google eventually paid for YouTube. He was asked whether the video-sharing service created by his own company, Google Video, ever filtered for pirated content prior to the acquisition (It did). Page answered dozens and dozens of these and similar questions the exact same way: “I can’t recall.”
Fascinating example of recollection. Now where did I leave my feather preening cream? I don’t recall.
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2010
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