YouTube, the U.S. video-sharing website owned by Google, is reportedly gearing up to buy Twitch, a popular video game streaming company. On May 18, Variety reported that a person familiar with the matter said that YouTube and Twitch have already agreed upon the $1 billion price.
The Twitch purchase will be the most costly deal in the history of YouTube. Meanwhile, the two companies are working out the specifics of the acquisition and waiting for the assent by the U.S. Justice Department before the official announcement of the deal. Both companies have not made any comments yet.
For the reference, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. Twitch.tv is the world’s biggest video game streaming service which allows users to broadcast, watch, and talk about video games. Most of the content is user-generated. It was launched in 2011. The company claims to have more than 45 million monthly users, with more than 1 million members who upload videos each month. Twitch is sometimes used for unofficial presentations of new games. For example, Microsoft channel showed a trial game on Xbox 360 which was put on sale by World of Tanks later.