By: Doug Caverly | Source: webpronews.com

Rumors abound about who wants to, who can, and who will buy YouTube (assuming that it’s ever offered for sale). Some of the most-mentioned names include Google, NewsCorp, and Time Warner. A GigaOM article recently presented another option - Apple - and made a convincing argument for that possibility.

"As most know, with the exception of iTunes, Apple has been a laggard when it comes to the web," wrote Robert Young. "But buying YouTube, Steve Jobs could leapfrog to the top of the heap."

"YouTube would also, for the first time, give Apple a platform to tap into the highly-coveted stream of online ad revenues, particularly within the fast-growth, high-CPM video ad segment," Young continued.

Another excellent point followed a couple of paragraphs later. "The online video phenom can be to the video iPod what iTunes was to the audio iPod," he predicted. "It’s not difficult to imagine mass consumers, especially tweens, downloading their playlists of YouTube ‘video snacks’ and viewing them on the go with their video iPods."

The article, titled "Why Steve Jobs Should Buy YouTube," offered one more, um, "personal" reason: "Jobs’ ego would benefit as well (not that he needs it). Just like Rupert Murdoch (via the ‘MySpace Effect’), such a deal would catapult Steve Jobs into the rarified stratosphere of being a ‘social media mogul.’"

Young accepted that Apple is not a frontrunner in the race to purchase YouTube. In fact, in an earlier piece, he’d "suggested that, with a rumored asking price of $1 billion, NBC Universal was the most likely contender to buy YouTube." Maybe if somebody shows Young’s article to Steve Jobs, Apple will "go after" the video site.

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