Acquire

Finally, Google excels at buying ideas (see the table below). Unlike many other industry players (especially Apple, which is known for developing its products exclusively in-house), Google is known for buying companies with interesting products. Since 2001, the search giant has acquired over 50 companies. Most of them are startups created by small teams, often as few as two or three people, with an idea and the ability to develop it. Typically, acquisition targets have been companies that have developed a new web application that has attracted a few thousand or tens of thousands of visitors.

Table 7-1. Google Acquisitions from 2001 through 2008

Year

Number of Acquisitions

Fields

2001

2

Data mining, search engine

2003

6

Search engine, online advertising, ...

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