You weren't alone in thinking Google overpaid for YouTube

Remember when Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion back in 2006? A lot of observers couldn't help but feel that maybe Google was paying a bit too much for a service that hadn't really demonstrated a profitable business model yet.

And you know what? Google CEO Eric Schmidt agrees. Kind of. CNET reports that in a deposition earlier this year, Schmidt stated that he asked Google's board of directors to approve the $1.65 billion figure, even though the board only believed YouTube was worth between $600 and $700 million at the time.

Basically, if Google didn't spend the extra money, Schmidt was under the impression that another company would purchase the web's most popular video site instead. And while YouTube wasn't making any real money in 2006, Google has continued to build the site's traffic while rolling out several different revenue models.

What do you think. In retrospect, do you still think Google paid too much for YouTube?

Tags: acquisitions, google, news, YouTube