I just read moments back an article by MG Siegler on the possibility of TechCrunch about to change. It was bound to happen and any sensible person could have sensed the shit coming TechCrunch’s way when they announced their acquisition by AOL. You sell yourself or even have money poured in by an investor [like AOL] you should be ready to embrace drastic changes, for these firms just can’t tolerate the existing dynamics to function. Just to clarify, by stating “These firms” I strictly point to those who love monopolizing everything possible. Don’t call me a fanboy of TechCrunch or that someone has funded this post, I do so because it is a massive lesson from which other blogs and bloggers should learn.
Tag Archive: acquisition
Riddled by the recent happenings of Microsoft firing ferociously at it, Google for some odd reason appears to be on wobbly grounds. The entire issue from this to the Google Plus saga paints quite a different picture that we usually see about Google. Not that controversies and a few hiccups here and there are new to Google, but the search giant has never really been on the defensive. Not until now.
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If there’s an idea or startup that Google likes and it’s available for a buyout Google will purchase it. The latest reports are of Google has acquired Schedule Management Startup, Plannr [as per reports]. The startup focuses at knitting friends in groups to enable sending alerts on events to multiple friends, more like a group messaging service but with plans to integrate more features. Plannr isn’t that old and was launched a couple of months back.
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Google continues to bolster its social networking initiative, Google.Me. The latest step is the acquisition of Angstro, a startup launched back in 2008 with a purpose to provide aggregated business news to professionals. The startup leveraged the existing social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to help people discover and share news about their colleagues. The acquisition makes sense, and falls perfectly into Google’s recent line of action.
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So it’s official, Google has pocketed the visual Search Engine, Like.com. The deal’s financial aspects remain undisclosed but it appears that it was closed in the $100 Million price bracket.
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Visual Search is going to get a better of share of all searches made online. Primarily for the fact that it makes search more convenient and users can actually see what has been searched for. The news today is of Google acquiring Like.com, the visual search engine that has gained quite a momentum at combining computing with machine learning to provide a richer shopping experience.
Like.com was actually the continuation of Riya, which started off back in 2005 as the first service that utilized image facial recognition and tagging for users and did arouse interest of Google. But the search giant opted out and Riya was eventually shutdown. But that’s past now and Google is close to finalizing the acquisition of Like for an estimated $100 million.
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Everyone has eyes on a large market that attracts people in large numbers and more importantly keeps them engaged or glued to. The same rule applies online when services grow massive and advertisers are ready to flood investments in these services or destinations. The example is Facebook, which only recently cross the half a billion user mark and has attracted investments in bulk from its advertisers.
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Siri a mobile application that takes instructions from users as voice commands has been acquired by Apple. The acquisition is worth $200 million and is a part of Apple’s strategy to bag smaller startups and more importantly innovative ideas and applications. More importantly, the purpose here is to grab a startup, patent the mechanism to its own name and buy out competition.
The voice command bit is pretty interesting and will be very popular amongst the masses, especially given the fact that in many regions you would be given tickets by the police if you are using the phone while driving. Think of it, having Siri on your iPhone to talk, make phone calls, access iTunes, make purchases from the App Store just by voice commands. Simplifies a lot of issues and ensures you are protected and not engulfed in sliding menus while driving.
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Is the air getting fresher with news of acquisitions and more improvements? We have had Firefox doing great in Germany, Google coming out with Goggles and now MySpace surfaces with the completion of its acquisition of iMeem. The two had been busy with the acquisition talks, etc for quite some time until today when MySpace bagged the online music service for $1 Million in cash.
While MySpace has definitely paid some price to acquire it, the benefits it will reap will be great. The major being the shift of iMeem’s 16 Million a month users to MySpace, which is in dire straits to grab any and every possible visitor out there to keep itself stable. While it is good for MySpace, things wont be too pleasant for iMeem’s employees. The key players in the workforce; Founder Dalton Caldwell, COO Aly Aydat, CTO Brian Berg and VP of sales David Wade will look over the transfer, with their primarily role being of consultants to ensure a smooth transition.
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Quite an acquisition day today, beginning with Apple acquiring Lala and now Google making the move as it acquired AppJet. The startup provides users with its online collaboration platform and with this acquisition, Google would merge the startup with Wave. The acquisition would bring AppJet’s EtherPad team working in Google’s Wave project.
That sounds quite effective given that EtherPad enabled users to edit documents and with changes occurring in real time across the screens in real-time. That is much like Google Docs, isn’t it? I guess it would be of great value to the Wave project working with people who have been doing and it becoming a part of a venture that would eventually get people do more than just be traditional with emails. The Wave project has just peeked out and soon enough there will be features rolled out in time to come.
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