Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Has slowed down its acquisition juggernaut in the last six months. No small or medium companies have been purchased as the company hoards cash to add to its $16 billion pile. Does Google really need anything right now? Not really -- the advertising slowdown has affected it but the company is not hurting. If anything, more restrictive ad dollars are flowing into the internet due to its highly-targeted nature. Google commands this market with an iron fist.Will Google expand beyond search advertising and try to make money be offering services? Some think a buy of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) or communications juggernaut Twitter may be in the offing soon. Twitter is the micro-blogging soup du jour that could get snatched up by Google just for the potential for ad eyeballs. Twitter user numbers are staggering. But, so were MySpace's numbers in 2006. How much do we hear about MySpace these days? From what I have seen, much of MySpace is a cesspool or really cool web homes for aspiring musicians. Oh, and teen's bypass their parents rules and virtually hang out there. Bleh.
Twitter is interesting just based on the product it provides: short communication exchanges. However Google could integrate non-intrusive advertising into that platform would be an interesting scenario to watch if it did buy all those tweets. Yes, it's business model remains unclear, but not its customer usage. Same thing for Facebook -- where is the money going to eventually come from? Customers are extremely fickle with something they love that arrives for free but eventually starts featuring annoying advertising. That's the nut Google must crack with any existing company it acquires.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-27-2009 @ 5:10AM
steve opti said...
Twitter may be the 'better' option for Google. Twitter has some mind-boggling number of users! This will certainly help Google in terms of improving its 'products base'! I think Google is looking for some ' really good' target company to acquire which suits its business model.