Google refuses to disclose YouTube revenue to the SEC

Crown

Crown

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Source and full article: https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/02/28/alphabet-not-sharing-youtube-revenue-sec/


Excerpt:

Alphabet – Google’s (and therefore YouTube’s) parent company – just won a passive aggressive email war with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, the digital giant won’t have to report YouTube’s financial information, at least not for now.

Through months of email exchanges beginning in July 2017, the SEC asked Alphabet to clear up its foggy financial filings for Q2 last year. The SEC took a specific interest in YouTube, which it inquired about in its initial letter to Alphabet and then followed up on in a letter dated November 8, 2017.

First in July, the SEC told Larry Page, Alphabet’s CEO, to “please clarify whether YouTube and Google Play represent or comprise operating segments that are aggregated into the Google reportable segment.” When the SEC failed to receive an adequate reply, the agency followed up, asking Alphabet to further clarify how involved Page and Google co-founder/Alphabet president, Sergey Brin, are in YouTube and what kind of financial information they receive about the video platform.

Alphabet’s ultimate response to the SEC’s repeated requests to gain more insight into the company’s financials boiled down to, simply, “no.” To which the SEC eventually just shrugged.

The SEC has been asking Alphabet pesky questions about YouTube’s revenue because of a rule created by the agency. It says a public company’s investors have the right to access the same financial information to which the company’s CEO is privy. If Page, as Alphabet’s CEO, has information on YouTube’s financials, so should Alphabet’s shareholders.

For the rest of the article: https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/02/28/alphabet-not-sharing-youtube-revenue-sec/


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I wonder what they are trying to hide? :unsure:

Thoughts ?
 
It's quite known Youtube doesn't make much money (if not operates at a loss), I wonder if it's what they are hiding from investors?
 
The way I see it, Youtube has almost zero revenue outside of the Youtube Red and the Youtube TV subscription revenue. Compared to the cost, it would look on paper that Youtube is massively losing money. Youtube Ad Revenue is likely considered part of the Adwords revenue umbrella if you think of it. I can see why it would look odd on paper to an outsider, but not to the CEO that looks at it from the point of view of Alphabet owning all of the companies.
 
I’M sure they’re hiding how much money they’re losing. As someone above, if Adwords revenue is separate from YouTube revenue then I’m sure it looks terrible. If investors see this I’m sure Google’s stock price will drop.

That said the SEC is toothless and can’t/won’t do anything. What other US law enforcement agency can demand something from you and you’re allowed to reply with that basically amounts to “shut up”.
 
I bet they fell into a pretty big hole this past year and don't want to show folks how big it is. :S They've since made some pretty drastic changes over a short time span, which gives off a "reacting" vibe rather than "controlled" vibe. :o
 
Oh boy.

I kinda have to applaud youtube for kinda winning that email war. That was kind of cool. Although it worries me to a degree of youtube's financial status.

It's ironic, now I really want to see what they make!
 
It's not great for corporate policy enforcing (and the shareholders) to be kept from this information, but I suspect that it's good for YouTube creators, who probably don't want how much money YouTube is hemorrhaging to get out there.
 
You'd think they'd not lose as much if they didn't open the floodgates to every d**k and Mary with a YouTube channel for monetization, eh?
 
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