Google and Facebook are considering investments in Vevo, the New York Post reports in an exclusive story. According to its sources, both are competing for an equity stake and an ad deal with the music video service.
It wouldn’t be the first time Facebook has shown interest in partnering with Vevo, and it reportedly already tried to make it abandon YouTube in favor of its own platform. While it visibly hasn’t fully succeeded yet, Vevo rolled out an advanced integration with Facebook — and immediately saw sharing and engagement skyrocket.
This could be a strong argument for Vevo to reconsider its multi-platform strategy – according to its CEO Rio Caraeff, the company doesn’t want to “put all its eggs in the same basket,” but the opportunity of an attractive exclusive deal may change his mind. As a matter of fact, having a big external investor could help it finance its expansion; as we reported, Vevo has already launched in the UK and plans to enter 6 additional countries, which implies to license costly music rights.
According to the New York Post, Vevo’s deal with YouTube expires at the end of the year, and the company wants to take this opportunity to negotiate a better ad cut with Google’s video platform – or explore other options. At the moment, YouTube hosts Vevo’s videos in exchange for roughly one-third of the ad revenues.
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Currently valued at $1 billion, this joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Abu Dhabi Media Co is said to be considering three possibilities: finding a new investor, selling its operations or going public. In this context, it is hard to tell how serious these reported negotiations are, but it will be an interesting story to follow.
We will update this post if we hear back from Google; Both Vevo and Facebook already declined to comment.
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