As it acquires London-based DeepMind for $400m
It’s just the 28th of January and Google has already spent over $4bn acquiring hot tech companies throughout the world.
Just yesterday, it bought London-based artificial intelligence firm DeepMind, shelling out a whopping $400m for a firm founded less than two years ago.
From robot manufacturers to alarm clock app makers, Google is gobbling everything. Could its acquisition spree be part of some bigger plan to become the most powerful tech giant in the world? Well that’s a debate for another article.
For now, take a look at the companies Google has snapped up in 2013 and 2014 so far…
1. DeepMind
Price: $400m
When: 26 January, 2014
This London-based artificial intelligence firm was Google’s biggest European acquisition to date. Founders of the firm are 37-year-old neuroscientist and former teenage chess prodigy Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. Google purchased this company for its speciality in creating algorithms.
2. Impermium
Price: Unknown
When: January 2014
In 2011, ex-Yahoo employees Vish Ramarao, Naveen Jamal and Mark Risher set up Impermium to build security products for websites. They set up an office in Bangalore and one in California to gather over 300,000 clients, including Tumblr, Pinterest, CNN and ESPN.
In a statement, CEO and co-founder Mark Risher said: “By joining Google, our team will merge with some of the best abuse fighters in the world. With our combined talents, we’ll be able to further our mission and help make the internet a safer place. We’re excited about the possibilities.”
3. Nest Labs
Price: $3.2bn
When: January 2014
Nest Labs was Google’s second-biggest acquisition after Motorola. It was widely speculated that Apple would swoop in on this one first as Nest founder Tony Fadell is the guy who was involved in designing the iPod.
Nest makes “smart” thermostats and smoke alarms that can be controlled through smartphones. Google had its eye on Nest as it wanted to cash in on the growing “internet of things” trend.
Read: 6 reasons Google just made its second-biggest acquisition, buying Nest for $3.2bn
4. Bitspin
Price: Unknown
When: January 2014
Bitspin is behind the Android alarm clock app Timely. The Swiss firm and Google kept very hush-hush about the deal with the terms not being disclosed. Rumours were rife that Google may kill off the company but Bitspin later confirmed that the formerly paid-for app would be available for free on the Google Play Store.
5. Boston Dynamics
Price: Unknown
December 2013
Boston Dynamics was the eighth robotics company Google purchased in 2013. The company makes futuristic military-grade robots including the galloping “WildCat” and the Sandflea, which can jump more than nine metres into the air.
Other robotic masterpieces from Boston Dynamics include Big Dog, a four-legged robot that can climb muddy hills, and Cheetah, a robot which can run faster than the fastest human.
Now what do you think Google intends to do with these robot makers? Tweet us your thoughts @Londonlovesbiz
6. Schaft
Price: $20m
When: November 2013
Google has always had a thing for robot makers so this deal was not surprising. Founded in 2012, Schaft is a Japanese robot maker that focuses on producing disaster response robots to help in catastrophes suach as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The company’s 95kg two-legged robot came first in a competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Defense’s research unit. The contest included putting robots through difficult tasks including driving a utility vehicle along a course and climbing an 8ft-high (2.4m) ladder.
7. FlexyCore
Price: $23m
When: October 2013
French tech star Flexycore gained popularity in the tech world for its “droidbooster,” an app that claimed to make an Android device run “ten times faster”.
“The FlexyCore team has strong expertise in building software to optimize Android device performance, and we think they’d be a great fit with our team,” Google said in a statement.
8. Bump Technologies
Price: Between $30m and $60m reportedly
When: September 2013
Google bumped off apps made by Bump Technologies from Google Play after acquiring it in September last year. The reasons for shutting its file smartphone file-sharing app Bump and location app Flock weren’t divulged.
In a blog post Bump co-founder and chief executive David Lieb said: “We are now deeply focused on our new projects within Google, and we’ve decided to discontinue Bump and Flock.”
9. Flutter
Price: Undisclosed
When: October 2013
Flutter, a gesture recognition start-up, is quite in sync with Google’s philosophy. The app was seen as being very futuristic as it used a webcam to detect hand gestures and let users control applications like Spotify and Netflix without touching the mouse.
“We share Google’s passion for 10x thinking, and we’re excited to add their rocket fuel to our journey,” Navneet Dalal, Flutter’s CEO, wrote on the company website at the time.
10. WIMM Labs
Price: Undisclosed
When: August 2013
News that Google had acquires WIMM labs hit headlines only in August 2013 but the search giant has bought this Californian start-up a year before. The reason Google has kept mum about this purchase was because it is known to be developing its own smartwatch to compete with Samsung’s smartwatch.
11. Waze
Price: $1.3bn
When: June 2013
Google bought Waze in June last year to improve its maps using Waze’s traffic updates features. In a blog post, Brian McClendon, Google vice president, wrote:
“We’ve all been there: stuck in traffic, frustrated that you chose the wrong route on the drive to work. But imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travellers ahead of you, calling out ‘fender bender … totally stuck in left lane!’ and showing faster routes that others are taking.”
12. Wavii
Price: $30m
When: June 2013
This was another company that both Apple and Google were courting. But in June 2013, Google called dibs and bought this natural language processing start-up for $30m.
The Seattle-based start-up’s 25 employees, including founder Adrian Aoun, joined Google’s knowledge graph division.
13. Talaria
Price: $30m
Wh
en: June 2013
Now we all know that’s in the tech world these days, it’s all about the clouds. So, web application server Talaria was a good fit for Google to help it enhance its cloud platform.
Speaking about the acquisition, Google said at the time: “The Talaria team has developed cutting-edge technology that helps people build and run websites more efficiently, and we think they’ll be a great addition to our Google Cloud Platforms team.”
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