Techdirt is reporting that Google has squirreled away a little more than $200 million in an escrow account to handle "potential" legal costs associated with copyright lawsuits following its acquisition of YouTube. While many have noted that such an account is standard for any large acquisition, reports say that the money is for copyright suits specifically. More interesting, probably, is that amid all of these reports, the rumor that the company was--against all odds--profitable before the Google acquisition can be laid to rest: YouTube was burning so much cash that it needed to borrow $15 million to make ends meet between the time the deal was announced more than a month ago and its closing two days ago.
For more analysis of YouToogle:
- see this ever-contrarian post from Techdirt