Google has been around for quite a while and in this time it has gone from a simple search engine to a company so big it covers numerous playing fields, including robotics, medical research, security services, mapping and so on. 12 of the most expensive acquisitions made by Google have helped create this behemoth.
In order to achieve this level of diversity, Google has had to buy a lot of companies. Although it has not revealed the acquisition price for a lot of the companies it bought, its SEC filings reveal the investments it made and the score is getting close to $30 billion so far, while the number of acquired companies is drawing close to 200. 2014 was an especially acquisitive year for Google as 35 companies joined the tech giant.
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This year, Google has slowed down its engines somewhat as it orchestrated its reorganization — the company announced the formation of Alphabet Inc., a giant conglomerate that swallowed up Google itself as well as all the other areas. This move raised some eyebrows and people wondered what business Google had buying this name or that name.
Currently, Alphabet Inc. includes several companies: Fiber (high speed Internet), Calico (biotech research and development), Nest (home automation), Life Sciences (medical and health issues), Ventures (venture capital unit), Capital (investment unit), Google X (outlandish longshots – driverless cars, Project Loon, Google Glass) and Google. For its part, Google continues to include Ads, Analytics, Search, YouTube, Android, Maps and Apps.
Until the creation of Alphabet Inc., people always wondered why Google was buying various companies, including Boston Dynamics, creator of really cool robots, or Nest, basically a thermostat app. Now, founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin have made it clear that they’re interested in a lot more areas, even if 90% of the Alphabet Inc. revenues still come from the Google arm.
If you love any of these companies, you can check out the 25 biggest communities on Google Plus and see if there are enough fans to make the list.
We’ve gone over the available data provided by Google regarding some of its acquisitions and we’re going to rank them by their price tag.
12. Deepmind Technologies
Price (estimated) – Over $400 million
Deepmind Technologies was created in 2010 in the United Kingdom by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. The company was busy creating a neural network that learned to simulate the way humans play video games. In short, Deepmind Technologies delves into the depths of artificial intelligence.
In January 2014 Google snatched up the company after Deepmind Technologies’ failed negotiations with Facebook. Although the cost of the acquisition has not been officially revealed, it is estimated that Google paid north of $400 million.
Deepmind Technologies became part of Google X, the R&D department that deals with the most exciting projects the company has, varying from driverless cars and smart glasses to wireless Internet delivered by balloons.
11. Boston Dynamics
Price (estimated) – Over $500 million
One of the most exciting purchases Google made in 2014 is Boston Dynamics, for a rumored price that is more than $500 million. The company is known for its work in the field of robotics, building some really great projects that ended up winning international competitions.
The best known project Boston Dynamics has worked on is BigDog, a robot that was designed for the United States military with funding from DARPA, an agency of the Department of Defense known for cutting-edge technology research.
In December 2013, Google made a move to buy Boston Dynamics for its Google X endeavor. There, Google, or now Alphabet Inc., handles some pretty cool projects among which robotics fit right in. It’s going to be particularly interesting to see what these two giants are going to do together in the long run.
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10. Skybox Imaging
Price – $500 million
Next up is Skybox Imaging, a company that Google bought for $500 million in June 2014. The company was created in 2009 and it wanted to offer the world high-definition satellite imagery. Its satellites can capture clips at 30 frames per second, something that the company says can aid in better analyzing data from around the globe.
With its help, Google can greatly improve the images you find on Google Maps. Having such great data can also be useful for the company’s Project Loon, a moonshot that wants to bring wireless internet to remote locations around the world via balloons flying in the higher layers of the atmosphere.
9. Dropcam
Price –$555 million
Home surveillance company Dropcam was created in 2009 as its founders wanted to create a less expensive camera for video monitoring of homes or small businesses. In a few years, the service became quite popular as people wanted to keep an eye on their kids while away from home, monitor pets and so on via the live-streaming feature it offers.
In the summer of 2014, Dropcam announced that it was bought by Google’s Nest (we’ll get to it in a bit), a home automation company. The Dropcam and Dropcam Pro have since been followed by the Nest Cam.
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8. Postini
Price – $625 million
Considering the price tag on Postini you’d guess it was a recent acquisition, but surprisingly the purchase was made back in July 2007. Created in 1999, Postini was operating data centers within the United States, processing email messages and offering anti-spam services within a few years.
Following the acquisition, the company’s services were labeled a Google Postini Services. Its tools were particularly useful to improve Gmail, Google’s email service that was introduced in 2004.
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7. ITA Software
Price – $676 million
Created in 1996, ITA Software came up with QPX, a product allowing the search for airplanes and flight prices. This is used by various travel companies and even airlines. As time went on, ITA signed more and more deals to provide computer reservation systems for various airlines.
Then, in April 2010, Google bought ITA for close to $700 million. By September 2011, Google had already put the purchase to good use, launching Google Flights. The service competes with many similar companies around the world, but the Google household name gives it an edge.
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6. AdMob
Price – $750 million
In 2009, Google decided to pay $750 million for AdMob, a mobile advertising company founded in 2006, making it one of the most expensive acquisitions made by Google. Considering that some 90% of the company’s revenue comes from advertising, purchasing AdMob made perfect sense — it was one of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world. Also taking into account the popularity of Android, the desire to bring a mobile ad platform in-house was a logical one.
Since then, AdMob’s platform was updated with tech from Google’s AdSense tools.
5. Waze
Price – $1.1 billion
Founded in 2006, Waze was originally a community project in Israel, offering a free digital database of the country’s map. Two years later it had changed its name to Waze from “FreeMap Israel”.
In the years to come it managed to attract more and more users before expanding globally. The idea that people could help each other to signal potholes, police and traffic jams was a hit among many drivers around the world and helped capture Google’s attention. The “Waze left” became shorthand for a somewhat reckless left turn encouraged by Waze’s less traditional directions.
In June 2013, Google announced the acquisition of Waze, beating Facebook to the punch. Since then, its tools were integrated with Google Maps and Google Maps data was introduced in Waze, intertwining the two in such a way that increases the usefulness of both tools in unique ways.
4. YouTube
Price – $1.6 billion
In February 2005, three young employees of PayPal decided to create a way for everyone to share videos after failing to find footage of the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” incident at the 2004 Super Bowl.
It soon gained traction and caught the attention of Google. By October 2006, the tech giant had already snatched up $1.65 billion in Google Stock. Nowadays, YouTube is the most popular video sharing site in the world, with over a billion users that watch hundreds of millions of hours each day, according to company data.
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3. DoubleClick
Price – $3.1 billion
Acquired in 2007 for a whopping $3.1 billion, DoubleClick was one of the first Application Service Providers for banner ads. Since advertising is Google’s primary revenue stream, investing this much money into DoubleClick has paid off times over already. In fact, that’s about as much as Google earns through AdSense in a single quarter.
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2. Nest Labs
Price – $3.2 billion
We’ve talked about Nest Labs before, when we mentioned the purchase of Dropcam. Nest is a home automation service that produces thermostats, smoke detectors and, most recently, home surveillance cameras. They’re all programmable, learn your habits on their own, and are based on sensors. The company was created in 2010 and its products were already quite popular by the time they were noticed by Google.
The acquisition was announced and completed in January 2014. The company is now part of Alphabet Inc. as a separate entity from Google.
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1. Motorola Mobility
Price – $12.5 billion
Motorola Mobility was formed in 2011 after Motorola Inc. split into two separate companies. Motorola Mobility included the mobile phones, cable modems, set-top boxes and so on, while Motorola Solutions kept the product lines designed for enterprises.
In August 2011, mere months after the split, Google snatched up Mobility for a whooping $12.5 billion, looking to get its hands on the stacks of patents Motorola Mobility owned. It seems this was the big focus for Google since it wasn’t long before Motorola Mobility was back on the market. In January 2014, Google announced it wanted to sell the company to Lenovo for $2.91 billion in cash and stock. While this may seem like a big loss, Google kept two thousand patents which it can use to defend itself against a plethora of lawsuits.
This is the most expensive acquisition ever made by Google.
