It has been speculated all last week. Some thought it was just rumors but many news sources just confirmed it including Google's own press release. Google will acquire the rapidly arising video sharing start, YouTube for $1.65 billion all stock deal. The price makes YouTube, a still-unprofitable startup, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history. It is over three times what News Corp paid for MySpace only a year and a half ago.

From the official press release, "Google has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community."

In a statement, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers."

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley said, "By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners. I'm confident that with this partnership we'll have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide."

I didn't think it would happen, at least not for that much. Just goes to show how absolutely amazing this Internet age is.