Google is the new Internet behemoth, snatching up small companies
left and right. Google's past conquests have been varied, but they
have all been smallish Internet companies that are doing cool stuff.
I'll go through them here, with a brief blurb about how they were
acquired, and what has changed in the post-Google era.
There are also a number of other companies that would appear to
be a good match for Google, but cannot be for various reasons. Many
of these include non-profits like The Internet Archive or Wikipedia.
Others like IMDb are owned by other larger companies which would
not sell them (in this case Amazon.com), and still others are open-source
driven like BitTorrent or the Mozilla Foundation (also a non-profit)
and would not make a good fit in a corporate environment.
Many of the companies listed below might not be considered by Google
alone. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon.com, Adobe, and Yahoo! are just
a few of the web giants that have made it a habit of buying attractive
Internet companies. We bet they're regretting that they never approached
Google itself with an offer!
Biggest acquisition by google till date: Applied Semantics for
$ 102 Million USD. The following is the detailed table illustrating
it’s series of acquisitions made and the logics behind undertaking
those.
Year |
Month |
Company |
Description of the Company |
|
|
|
|
2001 |
February |
Deja (The Usenet Archive, not the company) |
It was incorporated to become a part of the re launched Google Groups. |
|
September |
Outride Inc. |
Outride was a by-product from Xerox (PARC). Outride.net domain name still exists, but currently forwards to Google. |
|
|
|
|
2003 |
February |
Pyra Labs |
A weblogging provider and owner of Blogger |
|
April |
Neotonic Software |
It was acquired as a part of Google’s plan to bring its CRM technology into house. |
|
April |
Applied Semantics |
Applied Semantics was a context ad company whose acquisition by Google was integrated into Google's AdWords/AdSense programs. |
|
September |
Kaltix |
It was acquired to develop and launch Google Personal. |
|
October |
Sprinks |
It was acquired to enhance Google's AdWords and AdSense program. |
|
October |
Genius Labs |
It was another web logging provider. |
|
|
|
|
2004 |
April |
Ignite Logic |
It's a startup which helps law firms set up web sites. But why buy them? If you have good tech and processes to get a law firm's site up and running, one might imagine it just might scale to the entire SMB market (and beyond). |
|
June |
Baidu |
Google paid $5M for a 2.6% ownership of it (China’s most used Internet Search Engine) |
|
July |
Picasa |
Picasa was acquired to provide picture management tools to Blogger. |
|
October |
Keyhole |
It was acquired to provide the core mapping capabilities in Google Earth. |
|
September-December |
Zipdash & Where2 LLC |
The 2 Silicon Valley start-up companies: ZipDash and Australian firm Where2 LLC, founded by Lars Rasmussen. The technology provided by ZipDash was used to develop and launch Google Ride Finder. Where2 provided the core mapping capabilities in Google Maps. |
|
|
|
|
2005 |
N/A |
15 Companies (2Web Technologies included) |
The combined purchase price for these 15 companies was equal to $130.535 Million USD.
The acquisition of 2Web reveals that Google already had plans for a spreadsheet product back in 2005. The acquisition of 2Web was a key part of the plan to develop and launch Google Spreadsheets. |
|
March |
Urchin Software Corporation |
Web analytics tools provider: Urchin Software Corporation was acquired and was used to develop and launch Google Analytics. |
|
May |
Dodgeball |
A social networking software provider for mobile devices was acquired. |
|
July |
Current Communications Group |
Google, in combination with Goldman Sachs, and the Hearst Corp., invested a total of $100 Million into Current Communications Group. |
|
July |
Akwan Information Technologies |
It was acquired as a part of its plan to open an R&D office and expand its presence into Latin and South America. |
|
July |
Reqwireless |
Google acquired Canadian start-up firm Reqwireless, a Web browser and Mobile e-mail software developer for wireless devices, as a part of its initiative to develop a version of Gmail for the mobile device |
|
August |
Android Inc |
It was a software provider for mobile devices. |
|
December |
Time Warner's AOL division |
Google paid $1 Billion dollars to acquire a 5% stake in it. |
|
|
|
|
2006 |
January |
dMarc Broadcasting |
Google acquired dMarc Broadcasting, creator and operator of an automated platform that lets advertisers more easily schedule, deliver, and monitor their ads over radio, and radio broadcasters to automate schedules and advertising spots. Purchase price was for $102 Million, with an additional payout of $1.136 Billion over three years if certain performance targets are met. |
|
February |
Adaptive Path |
Google acquired Measure Map from it which is a product to help with Blog Analytics. |
|
March |
Writely |
Writely is a web-based word processor currently in beta, and soon to be integrated into Google's suite of web applications. |
|
March |
Sketchup |
Using a plug-in, this program allows you to place 3D models into Google Earth. |
|
April |
Advanced Text Search Algorithm |
Google acquired an advanced text search algorithm from the University of New South Wales in Australia. The algorithm was invented by Ori Allon, an Israeli student. Terms of the deal and purchase price were not disclosed. |
|
May |
GTalkr |
A web-based and Flash-based IM client that focused exclusively on interfacing with Google's GTalk. |
