The following is the main article: In the past 20 years, Google and its parent Alphabet spent tens of billions of dollars to acquire new products and new ideas.But the company has always been focused on a larger pattern.
There is no doubt that the ad business is still the largest source of revenue for Alphabet - which accounted for as much as 86% of advertising revenue in the previous quarter, but it is clear that Alphabet is looking to find ways beyond advertising. The various acquisitions indicate that Alphabet will continue to move into new fields ranging from genomics to healthcare to driverless vehicles. "Suranga, general partner at Balderton Capital, a London-based venture capital firm, Chandratillake pointed out.
Chandra Tiklak said the company's smartest takeover was in areas where it did not have the expertise and technology to do that they still fit in with the company's core search business, Google, which took a $ 50 million cheaper bid in 2005 A good example is Android, "The development of the mobile operating system is not a natural proposition, but the search has given the phone a back-office for content and application operations," said Chandra Dirac. Today, More than 70% of smartphones use the Android system.
Not all of Google's acquisitions are appropriate, as Motorola Mobile, the largest mobile maker maker that Google bought for $ 12.5 billion in 2011, has had a huge financial loss. Years later, Google moved Motorola to Lenovo for a discount of nearly $ 10 billion, and Google dropped many robotics companies that it bought back in late 2013, including Boston Dynamics and Schaft Sold to Japan's Softbank Group.
But M & A deals are not always for good products, and they are an opportunity for acquirers to bring in people with the best ideas. "Technology giants such as Alphabet have started the so-called tide of talent acquisition, which means they Acquiring smaller, and often less successful, companies is just about getting the coveted talents of the latter, 'said Chandra Tiklack, in Silicon Valley, if you can not beat those giants, you might as well join them - as long as They give an attractive price.
Google's largest five acquisitions
Motorola Mobile Year: 2011 Purchase Price: $ 12.5 Billion Google spent heavily on the acquisition of Motorola's handset production unit, and later discounted nearly 10 billion US dollars to be changed hands, from a book perspective the deal is very bad, but from a strategic point of view, It is a masterpiece, and Google acquired over 20,000 mobile technology patents from Motorola for the deal, which make it a bar to Samsung.
Previously, Samsung was accustomed to the Android operating system with a variety of annoying skin and bloated software, which Google has always been very troublesome from the Google's point of view, this will give Google's brand adversely affected because a lot Users hate Samsung's customization of the Android system, or do not know Google has nothing to do with it.
With the acquisition of Motorola Mobility and all of its handset manufacturing technology, Google has proven that it can strengthen its smartphone manufacturing capabilities and in this regard, pressure Samsung, which has increased the production of its flagship smartphone Nexus and introduced it Several popular Motorola handsets powered by native Android.
The threat came in. In January 2014, Google and Samsung signed a new global patent agreement, and Samsung promised to downplay its Android-based, core Android app, and two days later Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo.
Nest Labs Year: 2014 Price: $ 3.2 Billion Google is willing to bet early on wearables by building Google Glass that the company is not afraid to take the next major hardware opportunity and is in the business of producing intelligent thermostats, monitoring The acquisition of Nest Labs, a camera and other products, is a good example: the smart home market is not yet booming, but it is a wise move for Google to set foot in early, after all, there is plenty of room to grow in the future. Synchronized with Google's smart speaker Google Home.
DoubleClick Year: 2008 Buy Price: $ 3.1 Billion Google's inherent advantage in advertising has always been searching, and its acquisition of DoubleClick, which specializes in display advertising, allowed it to make another fairly profitable Of the ad area.This is a very wise acquisition, after all, Google has acquired YouTube, and is seeking to create more revenue for the platform.
YouTube Year: 2006 Purchase Price: $ 1.65B When Google brought YouTube back in 2006, the latter came online for about a year, but its video was able to attract 100 million people every day. Google launched Google Videos , Tentatively into the field of video, but YouTube - already one of the fastest growing websites in the world - has overcome this booming market.Google did not list YouTube's revenue data separately in its earnings report, the video site Revenue contribution may not be great, but with such a day to attract so many eye sites, Google has been able to suppress Facebook and other technology companies involved in the video.
Waze Year: 2013 Price: $ 996m Waze is a smartphone navigation app with additional features such as real-time traffic updates from drivers and integrated streaming music service Spotify. Unlike Google Maps, Waze only focuses on driving Field, so these two applications have not yet how direct competition.
The acquisition also brings Google's 50 million Waze users and now Google can push ads for local businesses to those users through its own advertising network. Whether Google will allow Waze and Google Maps to grow independently in the long run It remains to be seen if they are integrated into a purely pilot version of Google Maps, but Waze undoubtedly expands Google's current lead in the field of mobile maps. (Lembang) Original link http://www.wired.co.uk/article / google-acquisitions-data-visualization-infoporn-waze-youtube-android