Google's YouTube to buy streaming-video site Twitch for $1 billion: Variety

Reuters
Updated
A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California September 26, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

(Reuters) - Google Inc's YouTube unit has reached a deal to acquire videogame-streaming service Twitch for more than $1 billion, according to a report in Variety, the entertainment news publication.

The all-cash deal is expected to be announced "imminently," according to the report on Sunday, which cited unnamed sources.

Officials at Google and Twitch declined to comment on the matter.

San Francisco-based Twitch allows consumers to broadcast live video streams of themselves playing videogames and includes social networking features that allow video game fans to communicate with each other during the broadcasts. The company says more than 45 million gamers visit its site every month.

Video games are among the most popular content on YouTube, the world's No. 1 video website.

In September, Twitch raised $20 million in funding from Thrive Capital, WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, among other parties.

(Reporting by Mike Stone; Editing by Eric Walsh and Jeffrey Benkoe)