Yesterday, the gaming and tech world was rocked when Amazon formally acquired video streaming company Twitch for an impressive sum of $970 million. However, before Amazon came in with its hefty checkbook, software and search engine giant Google was rumored to be the one close to a deal with Twitch.
So, what happened? While both Google and Twitch never publicly confirmed that talks were underway, word from the grapevine was that Google offered to buy Twitch for over $1 billion before the deal collapsed. Apparently, the reason why the deal didn’t push through was because Google had concerns regarding potential “antitrust” issues that could have come with the buyout. Important to note that Google already owns the world’s largest video streaming site in YouTube, which in effect competes with Twitch in broadcasting and live-streaming video game sessions. One unnamed source (courtesy of Forbes), say that because of these concerns, Google and Twitch couldn’t come to an agreement “on the size of a potential breakup fee in case the deal did not go through.”
Twitch could not be reached as of press time, with Google representatives declining to issue a comment.
Whatever the real story here is, it’s kind of pointless now since Amazon has already swooped in. If given a choice, would you rather Twitch be bought out by Google or is the company siding with Amazon the better alternative?
[Source: Forbes]
