Speaking at a conference in Cannes, France, Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons discussed the Google-YouTube deal, saying: "It's a stunning price--it's a stunning story. It's all the rage now that they were
able to extract a knockout price for the asset. Whether that will be a value added-acquisition by Google remains to be seen." Of course, the obvious question is where the online video craze goes from
here. "Is it going to take over edited or professional content?" Parsons asked. "No. I don't think it's going to overrun TV or movies." He added that the price Google paid for YouTube would be hard to
justify for a company like Time Warner, but for Google, "it's in their sweet spot. They're trying to acquire anything that generates traffic--they monetize Internet traffic. None of the other media
companies could have been in that ballpark." Meanwhile, Time Warner's stock is enjoying something it hasn't had in the last several years: an uptick in its share price--"which is fortuitous and
gratifying," Parsons said. He cited improvements in the prospect of its cable business and AOL's transition from a subscription model to an advertising-based model as reasons for the improvement.
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