Sony Pictures Entertainment today is expected to join Hollywood’s new-media mash-up by buying online video service Grouper Networks Inc.
With its $65-million acquisition of Grouper, the movie and television unit of Sony Corp. becomes the latest traditional media company to vie for a growing — and potentially lucrative — Internet audience that prefers its entertainment short and, often, stupid.
Video-sharing sites such as Grouper and category leader YouTube Inc. attract millions of viewers with a smorgasbord of short clips including home video of cuddly puppies, wince-inducing stunts and bootlegged snippets of TV shows and movies.
Grouper draws a fraction of the monthly visitors of YouTube, but analysts said YouTube’s price was probably too high to justify the risk. Both companies are privately held.
never heard of it but that doesnt suprise me. Anyone else wonder how sony can buy a company when every division they have except videogames is loosing money???