We always knew that Sequoia Capital and other shareholders of YouTube made out like bandits when Google bought the video site for $1.65 billion in stock in November 2006. But we had always estimated their profits from the deal – until today, thanks to a newly unsealed court document in Viacom’s longstanding copyright infringement suit against Google and YouTube. According to this filing from Viacom’s lawsuit, which alleges that YouTube had knowledge of copyright infringement, Sequoia Capital received $516 million worth of Google stock on Nov. 16, 2006, representing 31% of the total price. (We estimated $495 million and a 30% stake at the time of the sale). Sequoia invested $9 million in the company in late 2005 and early 2006 (not $11.5 million as previously reported), meaning the firm made about 57 times its investment at the time of the sale.
- Steven Woda