Business on the internet is growing, but not as fast as it once did. As a result, some of the mega-companies that have dominated the internet up to now are looking for ways to maintain their domination. The latest news is that Google is looking to make an acquisition of Next New Networks, Inc.

Next New Networks creates its own shows, but an even greater amount of its content comes from partnerships with other web-video creators. The company was founded in 2006.

A deal could be announced within a week. Google is expected to offer tens of millions of dollars for NNN. The expectation is that the acquisition would help Google get more professional content for its highly dominant web video site, YouTube.

Google would like to have more video content on YouTube in order to keep internet users on that site instead of losing them to Hulu or Netflix, which have more video content produced by television or film media companies.

AOL, which recently moved to acquire the Huffington Post, has also made overtures to online media sites. AOL and Yahoo are rumored to be interested in sports blogging site SB Nation, Sugar Inc., a network of sites targeted at women, and Howcast Media Inc., which creates original how-to videos.

Big internet companies have been looking to media companies for content to draw more viewers to their sites. The Google/Next New Networks deal is part of the next step: keeping viewers on the sites for longer periods of time.

"Source: Wall Street Journal "Google Closes In on Next New Networks" 2/11/2011