Google agrees to acquire YouTube
San Francisco: Web search company Google Inc. has agreed to acquire video entertainment site YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in stock, the highest price yet paid for a consumer-generated media site.

This is the first deal that values one of the new generation of user-participation Web sites at more than $1 billion and also brings together two of the most popular Internet brands: Google, synonymous with Web search and rapid innovation, and YouTube, a Silicon Valley upstart that has spearheaded the video-sharing craze.

YouTube offers upto 100 million videos daily and has drawn scrutiny from major media companies for copyrighted television and music videos that users post without owner consent.

YouTube had also signed a number of distribution agreements with major record labels and some analysts say Google could be inviting lawsuits with this acquisition.
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Hedge fund products not doing well
Mumbai: Funds offered by hedge funds are not performing well and are under pressure from investors, according to a report published by Fitch ratings. Funds of hedge funds are pooled investments in several unregistered hedge funds.

Over the last two years, the General Motors credit crisis in May 2005 and the equity market draw down in May 2006 have had a significant impact on hedge funds' performance.

Many funds of hedge funds are showing negative returns said the report. Apart from this investors have to pay higher fees for a disappointing performance, as fund of hedge funds have been unable to diversify their risk. The report said that at the end of 2005, total hedge funds had a $1.1 trillion assets under management. Of this, one third was held through funds of hedge funds.
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