Think Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s YouTube worries are “just” a billion dollar copyright infringement lawsuit and a competitive online video smack down?
Think again!
Schmidt has two “Kingly” risks to concern himself with: The YouTube celebrity co-founders Chad & Steve “acquired” by Google along with the YouTube assets.
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen ARE YouTube.
Chad was the star at the Davos World Economic Forum, outshining his Google boss Schmidt and eclipsing the richest man in the world, Bill Gates of Microsoft “fame.”
Chad & Steve famously took starring roles in their own broadcast yourself video to celebrate the marriage of the two self-proclaimed Internet “Kings,“ Google and YouTube, netting each of them hundreds of millions of dollars of GOOG.
But are Chad & Steve giddily laughing now?
When Google bought out Chad and Steve with a hearty serving of GOOG, Google proudly underscored that “We’re pleased that the YouTube shareholders want to become shareholders of Google and participate with the rest of us.”
How pleased are Chad & Steve now? GOOG "participation" is not a pretty picture in 2007, as illustrated below.
Google recently warned in its latest Annual Report filing that its acquisitions could provoke “harmful consequences,” acknowledging “We do not have a great deal of experience acquiring companies.”
Google signaled, in particular, it is at risk of losing employees in the businesses it acquires.
Google, in fact, recently lost the founding management team of one of its highest-profile acquisitions, dMarc Broadcasting.
Will YouTube co-founders Chad & Steve soon follow in the now not so Googley footsteps of the dMarc co-founders?
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