YouTube boasts more than 1 billion active users a month, in line with social-media behemoth Facebook Inc. — and analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch say the video site now has a valuation near $80 billion, which is bigger than the market caps of Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc. and a number of other well-known companies in the S&P 500.
“YouTube is a big asset that warrants a big valuation,” Merrill Lynch research analyst Justin Post said in a note to clients this week.
He said he believes the site — on whose platform users spend more time than they do on Instagram and Twitter, according to comScore — accounts for roughly 20% of parent company Google’s market capitalization of $368 billion.
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The valuation was calculated using a seven-times-revenue multiple, which Post said is a discount to the revenue multiples he applies to Facebook Inc. , LinkedIn Corp. and Twitter . His estimate is calling for YouTube revenue growth of 34% this year to $8 billion, and he foresees that figure growing to $13 billion by 2017.
For perspective, here are 10 of the better-known S&P 500 companies currently carrying lower valuations, according to their market capitalizations:
eBay Inc. has a market cap of $71.3...