Attention Startups: Google Uninterested In Acquiring Your Eyeballs

from the bring-the-cash dept

Despite the return of the IPO market, the ultimate goal for many of today's startups is still to be acquired by one of the large tech or media firms. While Google has made a few really high-profile acquisitions, the company has also made a number of smaller purchases that pretty much fly under everyone's radar. Speaking to a group of VCs, one of the company's top executives involved in making acquisitions said that the company is no longer interested in companies that have plenty of users, but little concept of how to monetize them. Instead, it wants companies with a clear business model that will lead to revenue growth. This makes sense since the company certainly isn't starving for traffic. What's clear is that the company is serious about broadening its offerings, so that it's not so dependent on advertising for its revenue. Eric Schmidt even admitted as such in a recent interview with Wired, as he touted the company's emerging paid software business. The attitude might also be a reflection of the company's ongoing headaches associated with YouTube. While it's still too early to put a verdict on that acquisition, the company may be regretting having spent so much money with so little clarity as to how it would recoup its investment.
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  • icon
    Healthy Sceptic (profile), 12 Apr 2007 @ 4:51pm

    Sounds like they are thinking like a regular busin

    instead of just a internet business.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt, 12 Apr 2007 @ 5:40pm

    if i was Google

    then i would consider the purchase of YouTube a requirement regardless of return on investment. Google has since its inception been at the forefront of the industry in every one of its ventures, and Google Video was the exception. They realized that the only way to be at the top of that niche was to buy their way in...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    GoblinJuice, 12 Apr 2007 @ 7:32pm

    Google's good, not great.

    Taken as a whole, Google is a good company. Greatness, however, will forever elude them - given the nature of the net.

    Oh, yeah, and... YouTube blows. Google Video was/is faaar superior to LoserVision... er... I mean, YouTube.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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