I bit my fingernails off when I read VentureBeat reporting of Cuil being valued at $200 million in the second round just before the Great Search Engine (to be) was launched in July.

Cuil came claiming to burn Google down with its volcanic eruption; eventually kissed dirt and turned into a mega flop attempt to annihilate the giant in business. Nobody really appreciated or found Cuil cool enough to be even considered a second grade search engine.

The reason they made such huge claims was having a huge index for their search only to be proven with time that Google was the only one having all authority and the highest number of indexing compared to any other in the same league. This was highlighted when Cuil failed to provide results for various searches performed using it. I still recall Cuil firing up cylinders at having former Googlers who had helped Google create its mammoth index. But is that the only thing that guarantees a company’s success? Cuil’s failure is a glaring example.

The current valuation makes it impossible for investors that include, Madrone Capital Partners, Greylock Partners and Tugboat Ventures. I remember reading about Powerset being valuated at $40.5 and it sold to Microsoft for a little over twice the valuation (at $100 million). And we mustn’t forget it had a lot more to offer than the failure Cuil is. I don’t quite see the reason for putting up such a high valuation and I would definitely not be surprised if Cuil is bought out for half that valuation.

(via compete)

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