You think relationships don’t matter in business. You’re a rational decision maker swayed only by numbers and analytics. But what the data often misses are the intangibles – the connections, partnerships, brand affinities that represent enormous hidden value. Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion seemed inexplicable at the time. YouTube was hemorrhaging money with no clear path to profitability. But Google’s leaders understood that YouTube’s vast network of content creators and consumers was invaluable. They saw the potential for building connections and community that data alone could not capture. While your spreadsheet may not account for relationships, that doesn’t make them any less real or valuable. The story of how Google came to prize YouTube’s customer relationships as intangible assets holds lessons for any leader seeking to make decisions with imperfect information. Numbers will only take you so far; sometimes you have to rely on intuition to value what truly matters.
In 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, a move that stunned the tech world. At the time, YouTube was a fledgling video sharing site and Google was an Internet search giant. The deal seemed entirely irrational.
Google, however, saw something most didn’t. They recognized YouTube’s potential to become the world’s largest platform for user-generated video content. While YouTube wasn’t profitable and faced an uncertain future, Google believed that if nurtured properly, YouTube’s popularity and audience could be leveraged to build an entirely new media ecosystem.
It was a gamble that paid off tremendously. Today, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users who watch over 1 billion hours of video daily. It has become a cultural force and one of Google’s most valuable properties.
The YouTube acquisition highlights the importance of valuing customer relationships as intangible assets, like brand, community, and platform effects during mergers and acquisitions. These assets are hard to quantify but often determine the success or failure of a deal. In YouTube’s case, the power of its platform and popularity with users were the hidden gems that made the high price tag worthwhile.
Google saw what YouTube could become – a video platform that shaped how we create, share and consume media. They were willing to bet on the potential of YouTube’s customer relationships as intangible assets, even if the financials didn’t yet make sense on paper. For Google, the long term vision was worth the short term cost. Their foresight and patience were rewarded many times over. The YouTube acquisition remains a case study in valuing intangible assets that build relationships, culture and community.
Valuing intangible assets like YouTube’s brand and customer relationships is more art than science. As Daniel Kahneman showed, humans are prone to cognitive biases that can skew our judgments. When valuing YouTube, Google’s thinkers had to be aware of these traps.
The initial asking price acts as an “anchor” that biases subsequent judgments. Google avoided anchoring bias by ignoring YouTube’s initial asking price of $1.5 billion and evaluating the asset’s intrinsic value.
We tend to prefer things we know well. Google’s team likely recognized that their familiarity with Google Video could bias them against the unfamiliar YouTube. They worked to evaluate YouTube on its own merits.
We favor information that confirms what we already believe. Google’s valuators sought objective data on YouTube’s viewers, users, and engagement to overcome any preexisting beliefs.
We dislike losses more than we like gains. Google weighed the potential loss of not acquiring YouTube and having a competitor buy them. But they made a rational analysis of YouTube’s strategic value.
YouTube’s massive, youthful base of passionate users and its popularity as a cultural phenomenon were intangible assets that could drive significant future value. By rigorously analyzing these intangibles while avoiding biases, Google was able to determine a rational price for a strategically important acquisition that turned out to be a bargain. Overall, Google’s thinkers demonstrated why valuing customer relationships as intangible assets is as much art as science.
When valuing intangible assets like YouTube’s massive video library and creator/viewer network, standard accounting practices often fall short. Traditional methods focus on the hard numbers, ignoring the hidden value in relationships and connections. To fully understand an acquisition target like YouTube, you need to think like a psychologist – valuing intangibles requires acknowledging the complex realities of human behavior and decision making.
As humans, we rely heavily on the information that’s most readily available in our mind, not necessarily the information that’s most relevant or important. For YouTube, the sheer volume of videos and views dominated our intuition about the platform’s worth. But what mattered most was YouTube’s ability to influence and direct people’s attention in a predictable way. YouTube had tapped into the availability heuristic, training viewers to turn to their platform whenever the desire to watch online video arose.
Our tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains is known as loss aversion. For YouTube’s creators and viewers, the possibility of losing access to the platform created an irrational sense of value. Creators had invested heavily in building their audience and brand on YouTube, while viewers had grown accustomed to relying on YouTube for entertainment and information. The pain of transitioning to a new platform felt like a loss, and we are willing to pay a premium to avoid such losses.
We ascribe more value to things merely because we own them – this is the endowment effect. YouTube’s existing base of creators and viewers valued the platform more highly because they were already deeply entrenched in the YouTube ecosystem. As an acquirer, Google was able to capture this excess value that originated from the endowment effect. The perceived cost of giving up YouTube felt much higher to users than the opportunity cost of never having discovered it.
Accounting for these human tendencies is key to accurately valuing companies like YouTube. Standard methods only tell part of the story; to understand the whole story, you need to think like a psychologist. Evaluating intangibles requires acknowledging the complex realities of human behavior and decision making.
Understanding the value of intangible assets is crucial when determining what a company is truly worth. As Daniel Kahneman explains in Thinking, Fast and Slow, we often rely too heavily on the availability heuristic, judging the likelihood or importance of things by how easily they come to mind. With M&A targets, it’s easy to focus on tangible assets like infrastructure, technology, and real estate, while ignoring intangible assets like brand, customer relationships, data, and human capital.
YouTube’s brand was its most valuable intangible asset. In 2006, “YouTube” was synonymous with online video and community. The brand represented youth, creativity, and the cutting edge of digital media. Google recognized YouTube’s brand power and popularity – especially with younger users – even though the company was not yet profitable.
YouTube’s data and algorithms were also valuable intangible assets, though less obvious. YouTube had over 100 million videos and hundreds of millions of daily views, generating a trove of data about users, viewing patterns, and more. Google could leverage this data to improve its ad targeting and personalization of user experiences. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm was also quite advanced for its time, helping users discover new and engaging content.
Finally, YouTube’s team, culture, and talent were intangible assets that factored into its valuation. Led by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, YouTube had a team experienced in building online video platforms and fostering content creator communities. Google acquired not just technology and data, but the vision, expertise, and potential of YouTube’s founders and employees.
In summary, when determining an M&A target’s worth, consider all assets – not just the tangible ones. Brand, data, algorithms, human capital, and more can be just as valuable, especially in technology and media companies. Take time to understand the nuances and long term potential of these intangible assets. Relying too much on what’s easily quantified can lead to missed opportunities and undervalued deals. Consider the whole picture, as Google did with YouTube, to make the most strategic acquisitions.
When valuing intangible assets in M&A deals, several key takeaways emerge from Google’s 2006 purchase of YouTube:
Google paid $1.65 billion for a company with almost no revenue or profits. But they saw YouTube’s potential for growth and disruption. Consider a target’s future prospects, not just current financials. Think about how their product, service or technology might evolve and scale over time.
YouTube had harnessed powerful network effects, with both content creators and viewers attracting each other to the platform in a virtuous cycle. Network effects make a product or service more useful as more people use it. Look for targets with network effects that could create competitive advantages.
For Google, YouTube provided strategic value beyond direct revenues. It strengthened Google’s video capabilities, attracted younger users, and expanded their advertising reach. Consider how a target could enhance your strategic positioning or open up new opportunities. Their value may extend well beyond their standalone metrics.
Integrating an acquisition, especially one with a distinct culture like YouTube, is challenging but critical. Google largely left YouTube independent while providing financial and technical support. Think through how you would integrate the target to maximize their potential while maintaining what makes them special. An overly aggressive integration risks destroying value.
While Google likely overpaid for YouTube at the time, the deal is now viewed as prescient. Premiums are often necessary to win desirable targets. If the strategic rationale is strong enough and long-term potential high enough, paying above conventional valuations may well be justified to secure the deal. The most visionary deals are often the ones that look overpriced initially.
Ultimately, you must value intangible assets for the long game. Look beyond current metrics to future potential, network effects, strategic value, integration needs, and the logic for paying a premium. With vision and patience, the most prized targets can yield the greatest rewards.
You now understand the art and science behind valuing customer relationships as intangible assets in an M&A deal. The case of Google’s YouTube acquisition shows that determining a target’s worth requires evaluating both quantitative metrics and qualitative factors. The numbers provide an objective starting point, but ultimately placing a dollar value on relationships, brand equity and growth potential involves subjective judgment.
While the multi-billion dollar price tag seemed shocking at the time, Google’s contrarian thinking and long-term vision enabled them to see YouTube’s true potential. They understood that the real value of the deal went far beyond the costs and revenues on the balance sheets. The strategic benefits, competitive advantage and future possibilities were the real drivers of the deal’s success.
Valuing customer relationships as intangible assets is not an exact science. It requires experience, intuition and a willingness to go against conventional wisdom. The companies that master this art, as Google did, stand to reap huge rewards. Those unable to see beyond surface numbers risk missing out on opportunities that could transform their business. Understanding relationships is the key to understanding value. Google got it right with YouTube. The question is, on your next deal, will you?
At Eton Venture Services, we pride ourselves on delivering professional, comprehensive valuation and financial advisory services tailored to your unique needs. Don’t settle for generic software models or inexperienced teams when it comes to critical financial valuations for your business. Trust Eton’s expert team to provide thorough, data-driven assessments that empower you to make well-informed decisions and optimize your intangible asset valuations. Join the industry leaders who have already benefited from Eton’s exceptional client service and advisory expertise. Get in touch with Eton Venture Services today.
Schedule a free consultation meeting to discuss your valuation needs.
Chris co-founded Eton Venture Services in 2010 to provide mission-critical valuations to venture-based companies. He works closely with each client’s leadership team, board of directors, internal / external counsel, and independent auditor to develop detailed financial models and create accurate, audit-proof valuations.
