News & Updates - Thursday, March 31, 2005
Google's Bargain Basement M&A Strategy
Our friends at Silicon Beat have done some good sleuthing and unearthed two previously undisclosed Google acquisitions. The company confirmed to Silicon Beat that it purchased Where2 and Zipdash in 2004, both companies of such obscurity that little is known about them. Given its $49 billion market cap and plenty of cash on hand, Google's frugality is striking: the acquired ventures have low profiles and low price tags. We were mulling this over earlier in the week, when Google acquired Urchin, another company you've probably never heard of. Frugal Google For now, we find this to be a very sensible approach for Google. A major acquisition would be a distraction, and as a company with famously little internal structure, we don't think Google would know how to integrate a mature company with a traditional corporate infrastructure. The current strategy allows for quick integration and what amounts to outsourced R&D, on the cheap. However, the big acquisitions will come - and Google will probably be ready. Our moles tell us the company is actively contemplating a more traditional corporate structure. But like its current acquisitions, expect this shift to happen below the radar. Read: Google acquires traffic info start-up Zipdash -... Continue...
Nanotechnology - Thursday, March 31, 2005
Jurvi - The Father of Nanotechnology
VC Steve Jurvetson gets profiled in The Financial Times as the Second Coming of Thomas Edison. The a:c has made its case that Jurvetson has been behaving like a pompous self-promoter of his own over-powering intelligence. But the FT disagrees and - together with a large photo of Jurvetson’s finely-chiseled head striking a savant pose - reprints Jurvetson’s resume including his prodigious academic achievements, his stint developing chips at Intel, and his great investment win in Hotmail. The FT goes on to print Jurvetson’s prediction that Nanotechnology will dwarf the achievements of the Internet. The FT paraphrases Jurvetson acknowledging that listening to him "involves a willingness to take seriously the 'embarrassing and futuristic' - to imagine things that most would consign to the outlandish world of science fiction.” Read - Why Nanotechnology Is The Next Big Thing (The Financial Times) Read - Stop It Steve Jurvetson (The a:c)... Continue...
eCommerce - Thursday, March 31, 2005
Just.coms Seduce VCs
According to an a:c mole who recently made a tour of Sand Hill Road, VCs have become captivated by vertical eCommerce plays such as Zappos.com (just shoes), eBags (just bags) and AllPosters.com (just posters). The trend reminds us of an obscure, randomly humorous Saturday Night Live sketch where Bill Murray clerks at a mall storefront called Just Scotch Tape, and scoffs at customer expectations of selection by refusing to stock masking tape or duct tape, and indeed carries Just Scotch Tape. No Mam, Just Scotch Tape, just carries Scotch tape. Proponents of vertical eCommerce say that the rise of keyword search buys and disappointing customer service at Amazon and eBay, give specialty online stores new advantages. Vertical storefronts enable marketers to more easily highlight specials and get customers to what they want with the fewest clicks. Moreover, the collapsing costs of eCommerce infrastructure mean that more capital can be put to use on marketing. Recent travails at the Web 1.0 eCommerce company, publicly traded Red Envelope, provide more evidence that broad selection online is, in fact, tough to pull-off. Red Envelope sells jewelry, gifts, and other items, but is not known for any particular items or service. It may just... Continue...
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