Companies bought by Google - all 57 since 2001!
Difficult to believe isn't it? Having recently completed the purchase of 'reCAPCTHA', Google has amassed a grand total of 57 companies through acquisition. From it's earliest days in the late 1990's to late summer of 2009, Google has been on the look-out for companies that fit with its aim to become the biggest and best.
The acquisition of reCAPTCHA has received little press attention - which is somewhat surprising when you consider it was an undisclosed purchase price that could be guessed to be well into the super-millions.
Google is often thought of as a monster corporation that is of its own making; but what is less known is how important each of its acquisitions have been in allowing it to gain a head start in the markets it wishes to pursue. Rather than catch up, Google buys the market leader and drives it on under its own brand, bringing the latest technologies inhouse and developing them.
So, what better time than to publish a full list of their purchases with a few notable comments along the way. We've published the purchase price where it was publically released or discovered. Let's start off by showing the logo long before they started their journey of splashing the cash..
2.September 2001 - Acquired: Outride, web search engine, used in the development of personalised Search (iGoogle)
3.February 2003 - Acquired: Pyra Labs, weblog software, the start of Blogger
4.April 2003 - Acquired: Neotonic Software, CRM software, technologies used for Google Groups and Gmail
5.April 2003 - Acquired: Applied Semantics, online advertising, for $102m, the beginnings of Google AdSense and AdWords
6.September 2003 - Acquired: Kaltix, web search engine, continued development of iGoogle
7.October 2003 - Acquired: Sprinks, online advertising, continued development of Google AdSense and AdWords
8.October 2003 - Acquired: Genius Labs, blogging, strengthening the development of Blogger
9.May 2004 - Acquired: Ignite Logic, HTML editor, internal development purposes
10.June 2004 - Acquired: BaiduA, Chinese search engine for $5m to strengthen presence in China
11.July 2004 - Acquired: Picasa, image organizer, Blogger development and inclusion in Google Pack
12.September 2004 - Acquired: ZipDash, traffic analysis, development of Google Maps for Mobile
13.October 2004 - Acquired: Where2, map analysis, development of Google Maps
14.October 2004 - Acquired: Keyhole, map analysis, development of Google Maps and Google Earth
15.March 2005 - Acquired: Urchin Software, web analytics, development of Google Analytics
16.May 2005 - Acquired: Dodgeball, social networking service, development of Google Latitude
17.July 2005 - Acquired: Reqwireless, mobile browser, development of Google Mobile
18.July 2005 - Acquired: Current Communications, broadband access, $100m for closer ties to Internet backbone
19.August 2005 - Acquired: Android, mobile software, development of Android under Google name
20.November 2005 - Acquired: Skia, graphics software, development of Google Chrome Browser
21.November 2005 - Acquired: Akwan IT, search engines, further interest in internet backbone
22.December 2005 - Acquired: AOL, broadband internet, $1 billion for the ultimate backbone tie
23.December 2005 - Acquired: Phatbits, widget engine, Google Desktop development
24.December 2005 - Acquired: allPAY GmbH, mobile software, development of Google Mobile
25.December 2005 - Acquired: bruNET GmbH, mobile software, development of Google Mobile
26.January 2006- Acquired: dMarc, advertising, $102m, development of Google AdSense
27.February 2006 - Acquired: Measure Map, weblog software, development of Google Analytics
28.March 2006 - Acquired: Upstartle, Word processor, development of Google Documents
29.March 2006 - Acquired: @Last Software, 3D modeling, development of Google Sketchup
30.April 2006 - Acquired: Orion, web search engine, development of Google Search
31.June 2006 - Acquired: 2Web Technologies, online spreadsheets, Google Spreadsheet development
32August 2006 - Acquired: Neven Vision, computer vision, development of Google Picasa
33October 2006 - Acquired: YouTube, video sharing, $1.65 billion, Google Videos failed to take-off
34.October 2006 - Acquired: JotSpot, web application, development of Google Sites
35.December 2006 - Acquired: Endoxon, mapping, $28m, development of Google Maps
36.January 2007 - Acquired: XunleiC, file sharing, $5m, development of Chinese activities
37.February 2007 - Acquired: Adscape, in-game advertising, $23m, development of AdSense
38.March 2007 - Acquired: Trendalyzer, statistical software, development of Google Analytics
39.April 2007 - Acquired: Tonic Systems, presentation program, development of Google Documents
40.April 2007 - Acquired: Marratech, videoconferencing, development of Google Talk
41.April 2007 - Acquired: DoubleClick, online advertising, $3.1 billion, development of Google AdSense
42.May 2007 - Acquired: GreenBorder, computer security, development of Google Chrome
43.June 2007 - Acquired: Panoramio, photo sharing, development of Blogger Maps
44.June 2007 - Acquired: FeedBurner, web feed, $100m, development of Google Reader
45.June 2007 - Acquired: PeakStream, parallel processing, developing of Servers (computing power)
46.June 2007 - Acquired: Zenter, presentation program, development of Google Documents
47.July 2007 - Acquired: GrandCentral, VOIP, $45 million, development of Google Voice
48.July 2007 - Acquired: Image America, aerial photography, development of Google Maps
49.July 2007 - Acquired: Postini, communications security, $625 million, development of Gmail
50.September 2007 - Acquired: Zingku, social network service, development of Google Mobile
51.October 2007 - Acquired: Jaiku, micro-blogging, development of Google Mobile
52.July 2008 - Acquired: Omnisio, online video, development of YouTube
53.September 2008 - Acquired: TNC (Tatter and Company), weblog software, development of Textcube.com
54.August 2009 - Acquired: On2, video compression, $106.5 million, various developments
55.September 2009 - Acquired: reCAPTCHA, security, development of various and Google Books
56.November 2009 - Acquired: AdMob, mobile device advertising, $750 million
57.November 2009 - Acquired: Gizmo5, VoIP technology for GoogleTalk, $30 million
Now, that Google logo might not have changed much...
...but let's be honest, how much of it is Google and how much of it is a myriad of very clever acquisitions all behind the scenes? Of course you'll find nearly every collosus of the commercial world is built in a very similar way, but it's always interesting to see peoples reactions to how Google has got to where it is today.
Google invented an outstanding search engine, developed a growth business of phenomenal rate - and then it went on the trail of each and every company that could expedite that growth rate to turn it into the giant that it is today.
On a final note, you can easily spot that Google keeps acquiring companies on an almost monthly basis these days. Set yourself up a Google Alert for 'Google acquisition' and you can be assured of receiving e-mails to let you know of their latest intentions as soon as they're announced.
Not all that glistens..
Every company has its failures and Google is no different. Over the years some of the acquisitions it has made have turned sour, as have some of the projects that acquisitions were intended to improve.
Then you have the projects that Google tried internally but then had to go outside to purchase when things didn't work out.
Google Videos was a failure in the face of YouTube, so Google did what all good companies do - it bought the competition.
Google Catalog Search was launched in 2001 as a demonstration of OCR (opticial character recognition) technology and will ultimately be replaced by Google Books. Catalog Search was sent to the archives in January 2009.
Google Notebook was panned a good while back. Promoted as a single portal for browsing, clipping and organising information found online it failed to catch on. Whilst users can still access their portfolio of Notebook clippings, the product is no longer being developed. It was killed off at the same time as Catalog Search.
Dodgeball, a Google acquisition referenced in the main article on this page, failed as a social networking tool and fell to the likes of Twitter.
Jaiku, another acquisition, is to be merged with the Google Apps engine. Development will stop and the original product will be taken care of by a group volunteers in the form of a micro-blogging service.
Google Mashup Editor shut down earlier in 2009.
Google Knol, a supposed competitor to Wikipedia is to close.
Grand Central, a telecoms service has failed.
Google Base, an online database, is next in line for the chop.
See, even the big boys have their failures. It just happens that Google tends to learn from them better than most (and has a lot less failures than successes).
