The latest big tech buyout rumour on the Internet is that Google-owned Youtube is nearing a deal to purchase popular live streaming video platform Twitch for a cool US$1 Billion.

Unusually for a tech deal rumour, the report comes by way of Hollywood film publication Variety, citing "sources familiar with the pact" (thanks The Verge):

The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The impending acquisition comes after longtime Google ad exec Susan Wojcicki was named CEO of YouTube earlier this year.

YouTube is preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the Twitch deal, according to sources. YouTube is far and away the No. 1 platform for Internet video, serving more than 6 billion hours of video per month to 1 billion users worldwide, and the company expects the Justice Department to take a hard look at whether buying Twitch raises anticompetitive issues in the online-video market.

Twitch was launched in June 2011 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, co-founders of Justin.tv, one of the first websites to host livestreaming user-generated video. Shear currently serves as CEO of Twitch.

Considering the prices that some other major tech acqusitions have attracted lately, 1 billion seems a little low for Twitch, which earlier this year hit one million broadcasters, but we'll no doubt hear more soon.