YouTube played canny cat-and-mouse game before signing to Google

Steve Chen (left) and Chad Hurley, the founders of YouTube, courted several companies before settling on Google. Picture / Reuters

NEW YORK - Popular Web video site YouTube played a cat-and-mouse game with potential suitors all year, but gave in to Google's US$1.65 billion ($2.5 billion) offer because of its resources and assurances of independence, YouTube Chief Executive Chad Hurley said in an interview.

"We were interested in remaining independent," Hurley, 29, said, although sources said he was in repeated talks with potential acquirers ranging from Yahoo and Microsoft to media giants.

What sold Hurley and co-founder Steve Chen, 27, on Google was their belief that Google's resources and engineering talent could help them realize their goal of delivering the most entertaining online video experience, Hurley said.

"Now we have the resources behind us at Google to help achieve our vision," Hurley said, declining to say how much Google stock he and his partner would receive.

YouTube will retain the YouTube brand and its own corporate offices - a first among the numerous acquisitions that Google has made. That, coupled with the rich price tag, is a testament to how big a media name the firm has become.

YouTube serves up more than 100 million videos a day to Web users. Some 72 million visitors view the site each month, according to data from internet measurement firm comScore.

Hurley and Chen, who is chief technology officer, founded the company in February 2005 as a classic Silicon Valley garage start-up with another friend, Jawed Karim.

Karim left the company just before it got its first round of funding in November 2005 to go back to full-time study at Stanford University.

Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms and an early backer of Google, provided US$3.5 million ($5.3 million) in first round funding and another US$8 million ($12 million) in April. Roelof Botha, the lead investor from Sequoia, was the former chief financial officer of PayPal, where Hurley and Chen worked as engineers.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the details, said Sequoia owned 30 per cent of YouTube. Hurley declined to comment on the company's ownership structure.

YouTube has been the subject of mounting legal threats from media companies in recent months, but Hurley said the decision to sell the firm was not influenced by the fear of looming copyright lawsuits.

"No, the threat of legal action did not affect our decision at all," said Hurley.

He said talks with media companies, including Hollywood film studios, are ongoing. On Monday, YouTube and Google announced a variety of distribution agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, among others, in an effort to lessen the threat of legal challenges.

- REUTERS