Microsoft's inside look at YouTube

For all the attention focused on Microsoft's potential acquisition of DoubleClick, there's one key wrinkle that has been overlooked - at least, that's what Mark Cuban thinks.

One of our intrepid reporters caught up with the baseball owner and Scourge of YouTube at the bar of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. According to Cuban, DoubleClick's real value to Microsoft may be that it serves ads for YouTube. As a result, it could give Bill Gates and company a privileged view into Google's efforts to commercialise the site (though $2bn sounds a lot to pay for that inside look.)

Meanwhile, Barry Diller seems to be almost as pessimistic as Cuban about YouTube's chances of success in its efforts to reach an accord with the media industry. In this FT interview, he says it would be a tough sale even for a legendary negotiator like Henry Kissinger.