A media company seemingly lacking a busine model? Maybe A le should buy it...

...or not. Jan's post about the latest brewing busine suggestion that A le should buy YouTube betrays a strange trend in the news and blogo here. A arently, if a media-related company is either floundering or doing well but lacking a sure-fire busine model, they're fresh meat for an A le acquisition.

Remember the rumors of A le buying TiVo last year? TiVo's stock shot up 17 percent simply because the rumors started making their rounds. Now these rumors of A le buying YouTube are fluttering about, and they simply don't make any se e in my book. A le already has a ton of branding invested in the iTMS - including a very, very healthy video offering - and (as far as I know) they're the only major service which offers their own YouTube-like, gra roots media outlet: the Podcast directory. As Jan also mentioned yesterday, anyone can get a podcast listed in the iTMS, so they've already traveled down the road of offering a strong dose of user-generated content.

These claims of YouTube being a perfect buy sound a little far-fetched too - no one can figure out how they're making money (NYT even admits that in their third paragraph), and the company has never dro ed even a hint to clear up the confusion. As far as everyone can tell right now, they're ending kagillio on bandwidth without much of a busine model besides 'place one or two ba er ads.' Let's not forget this is also digg's 'busine model' at the moment, and that "Kevin made $60m" story from Busine Week was thoroughly debunked as being nothing more than an estimate; they don't have a dime of that money in their pocket. In fact, they're allegedly barely breaking even - and they don't eat nearly as much bandwidth as the video-inte ive YouTube.

Which leads me to the mortal question: how would YouTube show A le the money? Could A le charge $1.99, or even $.99, for that hilarious compilation of fu y cats? My gut reaction is 'probably not,' though given the things people pay for these days, I could easily be wrong there. Neverthele , I just don't see how acquiring what must be a money-pit of a company could benefit A le, when they already have most of the tools and features in place to offer YouTube-like services and community on their own with the iTMS.

Time, of course, will tell on this one, but my money is on Jo and co. saving their check book for a different rainy day. Just because a company is up a creek without a busine model, doe 't mean A le should be the one to to them a paddle.