[mmuro]

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire Twitch, a live-streaming service for videogame players, for more than $1 billion, according to a person who has been briefed on the matter.

The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the person said.

Google Inc. had earlier been in talks to acquire Twitch, but those talks cooled in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Twitch, launched in June 2011, is the most popular Internet destination for watching and broadcasting videogame play. The startup raised $20 million from investors, including Thrive Capital and videogame-maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. in September.

News of the acquisition was earlier reported by tech website The Information.

[ihuman]

It is now official:

http://www.twitch.tv/p/thankyou

[crisnoble]

For others wondering, yes, this is the entirety of the article.

[rcraft]

Perhaps you saw a very early version of the story, but now there is a more substantive article.

Ever want to get around a WSJ paywall?

Simply copy and paste the article title into Google search and then click on the Google News link in the search results. Presto you are in.

Hypothetically, they limit the amount of stories you can read like this, but personally I have yet to hit this threshold, whatever it may be.

[xexers]

Thanks, it worked!

[bagosm]

Then that's kind of... illegal to have here

[fastball]

Haha, being downvoted for being right.

[nilved]

Oh no!

[circa]

gotta love the WSJ subscription services :-/

[jawns]

Here's the link to the story by tech website The Information ... which is also behind a paywall:

https://www.theinformation.com/Amazon-Nears-Deal-to-Acquire-...

[freehunter]

This story is literally the first time I've heard of this site. Is it really popular enough to demand payment for reading the articles?

Looks like it was started on Dec. 04, 2013 [1] and has been subscription-based from the beginning. $40/mo or $400/year seems like a lot of money... any indication that they break news before any other site?

[1] https://www.theinformation.com/Letter-From-the-Editor1

[_pius]

$40/mo or $400/year seems like a lot of money... any indication that they break news before any other site?

The value prop isn't just breaking stories quicker than the next outlet, but we do happen to break a fair amount of news. For instance, we broke a story [1] last week that moved eBay's share price up by 4-6%. [2]

[1] https://www.theinformation.com/PayPal-s-Future-Still-in-Play

[2] http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EBAY+Interactive#symbol=E...

[barkingcat]

What's wrong with wanting a lot of money for content? If nobody reads their stuff, then naturally it will die off.

I wouldn't put having a paywall against them. Capitalism will do the work.

[freehunter]

There's nothing wrong with it, and I'm not holding anything against them. Just wondering if anyone here is a subscriber, what their target audience is, and if it's worth a subscription at the price they're asking.

[vlunkr]

I agree with you, but $40 a month seems so steep for a news site. Do their customers just not know how many free news sites there are out there?

[ig1]

It's not designed for casual readers, it's designed for professional readers who read it for professional reasons. $40/month is nothing in that scenario.

[sp332]

That's funny, the paywall-preview ends with the line: The acquisition would help Amazon bolster its position in the fast-growing business of online gaming and... which doesn't show up in your quote.

[MiguelHudnandez]

The parent poster paraphrased the article for everybody. The use of italics is often an indication for quoting a source, but apparently not always.

The full text can be obtained for free by searching for the article and clicking through to NYT from Google.

[MichaelApproved]

I believe the parent poster was posting an earlier version of the article. With breaking stories, news sites will sometimes post a small amount of initial information so they get the story out fast. Then, after more details are available, the article is edited to include more information.