According to Hollywood trade magazine Variety, Google and YouTube plan to purchase San Francisco-based video game streaming service Twitch for over $1 billion in cash.
Launched in summer of 2011, Twitch was spun off from livestreaming site Justin.tv and allows gamers to upload and livestream video of their gaming sessions. The videos can be streamed directly to latest generation gaming consoles like Xbox One and Playstation 4, turning video games into a spectator sport. According to the company, Twitch gets some 45 million visitors to their site every month and gaming enthusiasts watched more than 54 million hours of online gaming last year between recordings of their own games and footage of professional gaming tournaments.
Justin.tv was notable in 2007 when co-founder Justin Kan invented lifecasting by broadcasting his entire life for 24 hours a day. Google-owned YouTube, meanwhile, is the Internet's number one repository for cat videos, livestreamed White House events and trampoline accidents.
Twitch is currently sitting on $35 million in funding raised last fall. The deal is expected to get a second look from federal regulators who may perceive Google/YouTube's purchase as anti-competitive. A formal announcement is expected to follow.
Update: According to a post on secret-sharing app Secret, Facebook is rumored to be in a bidding war for Twitch. Although rumors posted to Secret have turned out to be true in the past, take this one with a huge grain of salt as Secret users are just as likely to be trolling as divulging secrets.
