Since 2001 Google has spent a lot of money on taking over 163 companies - $28 billion actually. This means that Google have bought on average one company each month. They have bought many different types of companies from services and technology, mapping companies, to security, gadgets, gaming and robotics. Here we are taking a look at the 10 of the most important and worthy acquisitions that have impacted Google’s business.
Makani power-clean energy – $30 million
Google made an investment in green energy start-up before purchasing Makani Power in May of last year and since that time Makani have been working from the labs of Google X building airborne wind turbines that could be the dominant form of clean energy. At the moment Google is working on a prototype.
Zagat – Restaurant Reviews – $151 million
Google bought Zagat in 2011 and the purchase was more about getting the content of the company into the various Google services including Maps, Search and Earth. Thanks to the treasures of ratings of Zagat, Google has been able to compete better with other services such as Yelp.
Titan Aerospace – Drone and UAVs – $60 million
Google purchase Titan Aerospace, the company based in Mexico, in April this year and they have many uses for the company which makes solar powered flying drones. Titan Aerospace, along with contributing to photos for Google Earth and Maps, will be a big role in Project Loon. This project aims to bring connectivity to the internet to places without it as it could beam broadband from the sky.
DeepMind Technologies – Artificial Intelligence – $650 million
Google would like to be able to organize the multimedia and data of the world and this is one of the main reasons behind the acquisition of DeepMind Technologies. They want to be able to provide computers with corresponding perception capabilities, which would allow machines to do things like listening to music and then building descriptions of their perceptions.
Boston Dynamics – Robotics – $500 million
At one time Boston Dynamics made mobile research robots for the Pentagon. However they are now making Googles robots led by Andy Rubin, the former Android boss. Google want to be able to deliver packages in the same way that Amazon wants to use delivery drones and at the moment the robots of Google are in training with the Marine Corps in the US.
Wave – Navigation Software – $966 million
Google bought the navigation and GPS company Waze and paid around $1 billion in June, despite the fact that the company had not been making a great deal of money. However Waze does have 44 million users and a lot of outsourced data and Google has improved the real time mapping data when it comes down to conditions on the road along with accidents and closures.
Nest Labs – Home Automation – $3.2 billion
Google revealed that they planned on bringing Android into the living rooms of people in 2011 and they wanted to do this by way of Android @Home. They paid around $3 billion for Nest Labs in January and it could bring the plan for Android @Home back to life. Nest is known for the thermostat and smoke detector home products and they have collected a great deal of data about habits of its users along with making a lot of sales.
DoubeClick – Online Advertising – $3.1 billion
Google spent more than $3 billion when they purchased DoubleClick in 2008. The company ended up being a cash cow for them, serving ad services to Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola and others. It is said that 95% of the $12.67 billion revenue came thanks to advertising in the most recent quarter.
YouTube – Video Sharing – $1.65 billion
Google took over one of the world’s largest video sharing websites, YouTube, for $1.65 billion in stock and users are said to upload around 100 hours of new content each minute. Thanks to monetizing, users can make money simply by posting video content on YouTube, thanks to it playing a big part in the culture of the internet.
Android – Mobile Software – $50 million
When Android was only in the start-up stage at 22 months old, Google spent $50 million to obtain the company. Within under a decade of the purchase Android became one of the most widely used operating systems on mobiles and tablets in the world. Today Android is seen on TVs, tablets, phones, car systems, wearable devices and video games platforms. It was without a doubt one of the best deals that Google ever made.
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