Tag Archive for 'Google'

For Google, a New High in Deal-Making

Published on October 31, 2011 in High Tech & Media and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

With 57 completed deals under its belt this year, Google has already smashed its 2010 record of 48 acquisitions — and it is only October.

According to a filing submitted on Wednesday, Google announced it had spent $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2011 on acquisitions.

That tally includes its $151 million purchase of Zagat, the online restaurant reviews site, $114 million for Daily Deals and $676 million for ITA Software, the travel software company.

Beyond those three transactions, Google largely focused on completing smaller transactions of $10 million or less. The remainder of its deals, 54 in all, accounted for about [Source].

Related stories: Google Cranks Up M&A Machine; Inside Google’s M&A machine: 3 months, $145 million, 9 deals; Google M&A boss presides over record year.

Amazon, the Company That Ate the World

Published on October 25, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Jeff Bezos’ new tablet, the Kindle Fire, is cheap, pretty, and puts Amazon in perfect position to take a bite out of Apple—and every online transaction you make.

Jeff Bezos is channeling Apple. It’s mid-September and the wiry billionaire founder of Amazon.com (AMZN) is at his brand-new corporate headquarters in Seattle, in a building named Day One South after his conviction that 17-year-old Amazon is still in its infancy. Almost giddy with excitement, Bezos retrieves one by one the new crop of dirt-cheap Kindle e-readers—they start at $79—from a hidden perch on a chair tucked into a conference room table. When he’s done showing them off, he stands up, and, for an audience of a single journalist, announces, “Now, I’ve got one more thing to show you.” He waits a half-beat to make sure the reference to Jobs’s famous line from Apple (AAPL) presentations hasn’t been missed, then gives his notorious barking laugh. With that, Bezos pulls out the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s long-anticipated tablet computer—and the first credible response to the Apple iPad [Read more].

Google close to launching music service

Published on October 14, 2011 in Global Strategy and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Google is reportedly preparing to launch its own Mp3 store, according to the New York Times. Citing unnamed “music executives,” the report said Thursday that the company will open the store in the next several weeks [Read more].

Music is becoming a key part of Google’s drive for dominance online. Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple are all locked in a race to become the one-stop shop for social, shopping, media and communication. Amazon has a cloud music player that’s hooked into its huge library of tracks. Facebook recently announced integration with Spotify, which will let users listen to music together with their friends [Read more].

Google’s Strategic Mistakes Drove Motorola Buy

Published on August 25, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Google’s USD$12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility has set the technology and investing worlds aflutter, with much of the commentary positioning it as a play by Google for Motorola’s strong IP portfolio. But a single point of focus is incorrect and misses a bigger point: The MMI purchase is the result of Google’s miscalculations about the way value is captured in mobile computing. These strategic missteps placed Google in a position of weakness and forced it into a costly and desperate move.

When it took its approach to mobile software, Google made a big bet that smartphones and tablets were sufficiently mature and thus could be built in a way that didn’t require Google owning all points of the value chain. For the last year it seemed that Google bet right. Android was very quickly adopted by licensees to the point that it achieved nearly 50% share in smartphone shipments last quarter.

However, lately, cracks began to appear in the strategy. Issues with intellectual property in Android caused some licensees to have to pay royalties to patent holders, increasing the cost. Fragmentation took hold where some versions of the software were used by some licensees on some products without the option or incentive to upgrade. Finally, some vendors modified the software resulting in missing features or inconsistent user experiences — even to the extent that Google’s own services were omitted [Source].

Are Google and Facebook splintering the social web?

Published on August 24, 2011 in Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Facebook is in the process of rolling out a sweeping series of changes to the way users can control their profiles and content-sharing on the massive social network. Among other things, the changes allow users to selectively share status updates or content with certain groups of friends, just as Google+ introduced the idea of Circles, which allow users of that network to segregate the people they follow into specific groups. These kinds of features are seen by many as a positive step for privacy — but will they make people less likely to share what they are doing with the public at large? And how will that affect the social web [Source]?

Google takes on Asia: New strategies in Asia’s diverse market

Published on June 14, 2011 in Emerging Markets, Global Strategy and International Business. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Daniel Alegre, Google’s President for Japan and Asia-Pacific, insists that his company is “locally relevant”, as it tries to appeal to the different tastes and internet capabilities of the hugely diverse Asian region.

It signals a shift in the centre of gravity of cyberspace, as Asia becomes the biggest and fastest growing region for the internet.

“Here in Asia… we have very strong competitors. And we thrive on that competition, because it forces us to be better and it forces them to be better and in the end, the internet benefits,” Daniel Alegre says.

The confidence is understandable. Given its global dominance and the new users that the Android operating system is drawing in, Google is still well positioned to challenge the Asian incumbents [Source].

Google drops another $55M on Calif. wind farm

Published on May 25, 2011 in Greentech. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Google has invested $55 million in a wind energy farm in southern California that will generate up to 1,550 megawatts of power — bringing the search giant’s total investments in clean energy up to $400 million.

The farm is located in Tehachapi, Calif., “where the Mojave sands meet the Tehachapi Mountains,” according to a blog post by Google’s renewable energy guru Rick Needham. The deal does not involve a power purchase agreement — meaning Google is only investing money in the project because it believes it will generate some kind of financial return. The first several projects in the Alta Wind Energy Center are already complete and the wind farm is generating 720 megawatts of power [source].

Nokia revamp includes Microsoft

Published on February 11, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, said it’s forming a software partnership with Microsoft a bet that together the two companies can better challenge Google and Apple.

Under the plan unveiled today, Nokia and Microsoft will combine assets and jointly develop mobile products. The two companies will collaborate on joint marketing. Nokia’s Maps product will become a core part of Microsoft’s services, while Microsoft’s development tools will create applications for Nokia Windows phones [Source].

“Nokia and Microsoft will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale,” Elop said at a press conference in London. “It’s now a three-horse race.”

Google Names Co-Founder Larry Page New CEO

Published on January 21, 2011 in International Business. 0 Comments Tags: , .

One of the longest, most successful runs as chief executive of an Internet company has come to an end: Come April, Eric Schmidt will step down as Google’s CEO and cofounder Larry Page will resume the position starting April 4.

Yes, resume. It’s so long ago that few remember, but Page was Google’s first CEO, and held the job from 1998 to 2001, when Schmidt was hired. Page, his cofounder Sergey Brin, and Schmidt have long ruled as a triumvirate. They’ll continue to “discuss” key decisions, according to a blog post by Schmidt.

It’s not clear what prompted the timing of this announcement. It has faced increasing difficulties in buying its way into adjacent markets: See its failed bid for Groupon, or its attempted purchase of travel-search startup ITA Software, currently held up in regulatory review amid concerns from rivals. At the same time, Google has struggled in launching new products, especially social ones, to fend off challenges from Facebook and Twitter.

If it can’t buy, it must build. The question: Is Page a builder? He was in his first round as CEO. Now he’ll have to prove his product chops anew. One thing’s for sure now: He won’t have anyone else to blame if he screws things up [Source].

A Google Mobile Payment Service?

Published on January 4, 2011 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Google is reportedly working on a new near field communication [NFC]-based mobile payment service that would allow individuals to easily pay for products just by tapping their smartphones against a special terminal at checkout.

The information comes from Bloomberg Businessweek, who cites “two people familiar with the plans.” The sources indicate that the service could become available as soon as this year. Smartphones would be required to be at least 10cm away from the register in order to exchange payment information [Source].

Already, several companies are looking to offer NFC-based mobile payment services. For instance, Verizon Wireless in partnership with AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. announced a joint-venture in November of 2010, which seeks to create a mobile commerce network called Isis. The service is expected to debut sometime in early 2012.

Other companies looking to create NFC-based mobile payment services of their own include Visa, Ebay and PayPal, and others.

Read another article here: Mobile phone will change the world.