Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Google Cranks Up the M&A

Over past several years Google has been extremely aggressive on the acquisition front. To date, Google's (GOOG) largest acquisition to date has been Doubleclick at $ 3.2 billion.

Wall Street Journal: Google Cranks Up M&A Machine

The article points out that Google plans to continue being very active in M&A and that a record 48 acquisitions were done by the company last year.

The focus is on small start-ups. There's a chart with a quick summary of Google's M&A activity since going public in the article.

Check it out.

A mere 108 companies in seven years.

Large companies are usually perceived as inhospitable places for entrepreneurs. Google's head of corporate development also asserts that a company's entrepreneurial days are not over if they are acquired by Google.

We'll see if Google remains a place that entrepreneurs can thrive. Can't argue with the results so far. In the long run being maintaining this level of acquisitiveness has got to be tough.

Plenty of risk.

If sustained it must (in part at least) come from the creation of very special work culture. Whether Google will continue to effectively execute this many transactions isn't an easy call but considering what they've accomplished I wouldn't bet against them.

Adam

Long GOOG

Read more: Google Cranks Up M&A Machine
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