Quote from Comptalk:
I think they screw it up and tank. They spend money like it is going out of style. To pay 1/3 more than the company is worth.. Crazy... The Youtube thing is boiling over. If they loose in court against Viacom. They are dead. They have no control on their evaluations on companies. In terms of Yahoo.. They need Microsoft more than Microsoft needs them. I think they will be acquired by Microsoft within the next year. They either have to align themselves with Google or Microsoft. I doubt the first is an option. The second is if Semel comes down on what he think the company is really worth. I think he wants close to a 100 billion or something. Another nut.
youtube isn't even monetized yet and has no impact on the core business.
google makes money from clicks, ads, and a lot of it. Billions per year at high margin. furthermore, almost 50% of revenues are from outside the US. Last time I checked, the world economy was growing.
google will fail if earnings fail. Youtube and even double click (at the moment) have very little to do with earnings and earnings growth.
Last time I checked, it cost a few years of research work by two guys to create the core concept of google. That concept turned into a multi billion $ business. There's no way yet to know if Double click is a failure or success from the start, since more hinges on integration and net revenue result by a change in purchasing habits from the end customers. If it results in a better product, a customer may be willing to pour even more money into it. And with that, double click may turn into a steal - more worthwhile for google than Microsoft.
So in $$$, google cost very little to create. And early on, you might have laughed at the venture capital funds for putting money into something that wasn't profitable. And you would have been dearly wrong. Growth through exploration and risk taking is what this is about. The payoffs are uncertain, but there certainly exists potential. Thats what seperates google. They aren't buying office buildings and oil fields - quantifiable assets with very definable prospects; they are at the core purchasing intellectual property that can be turned worthless with poor execution, or into a king's ransom with brilliant follow through.
google is 1% youtube and other services, 99% core business. google is 10% off highs. much more up room to go, especially considering their earnings growth is not a direct function of solely local US customers' spending (ie real estate slowdown in US can be made up for growth in other areas anywhere else in the world).