$24,546,000,000

10:

$500MILLION

TOP 10 MOST COSTLY ACQUISITIONS

SkyBox Imaging

2014

Strategy: With Skybox’s satellite technology, Google will be able to obtain accurate and up-to-date imagery for Google Maps.

09:

$555MILLION

Dropcam

2014

Strategy: Upon acquiring Nest Labs (see below) earlier in 2014, Google bought out Dropcam (video monitoring and security technology) to help Nest Labs increase their home automation products line-up.

08:

$625MILLION

Postini

2007

Strategy: After already utilising Postini (an email and web security service) under license to help with the security of Gmail, Google decided they wanted to acquire the technology themselves to further its growth. In 2014, the service was discontinued.

07:

$700MILLION

ITA Software

2010

Strategy: ITA is a major stakeholder in the travel reservations software industry. So much so that Bing Travel (a competitor of Google) also relied heavily on it. Google acquired ITA, thus owning ‘infrastructure’ behind a direct competitor. The service 'Google Flights' has since been launched.

06:

$750MILLION

AdMob

2009

Strategy: Prior to the deal, internet usage on mobile devices was growing rapidly. Google reacted quickly to acquire a mobile ad platform, understanding that mobile advertising was going to become very big for clients and partners.

05:

$966MILLION

Waze

2013

Strategy: Waze is a GPS-based navigation app. Its users engage very frequently with the app by updating its roads, a culture which Google would like adopted into their other services.

04:

$1.65BILLION

YouTube

2006

Strategy: YouTube which launched in 2005 quickly became the go to place for everything video-sharing. Google snapped up the company just over a year after its launch and has transformed it into the 2nd biggest search engine in the world - only behind Google itself.

03:

$3.1BILLIONDoubleClick

2007

Strategy: Google wanted a strong presence within the online advertising world which prompted them to acquire DoubleClick. Not only did they acquire their software, but they also acquired the relationships with web publishers, advertisers and agencies, beating the likes of Microsoft and a host of other potential buyers to the acquisition.

02:

$3.2BILLION

NestLabs

2014

Strategy: Expanding its presence in consumer homes, Google bought Nest Labs - a company which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors. Nest Labs was founded by Tony Fadell, who is known as “the father of the iPod”.

01:

$12.5BILLION

Motorola

2011

Strategy: The motivation behind Google buying Motorola was its patents. However, 2 years after purchase, Google sold Motorola for $2.91bn to Lenovo after becoming unprofitable. Although they did manage to keep the majority of the patents.

www.aptitude.co.uk @AptitudeTeam

Pros:

Spotify is the largest subscription based music service inthe market andGoogle want in.

With an impressivemarket capitalisationof $23bn, Netflixis a big player withinthe subscription basedvideo streaming industry.

• Good music industry relationships

• Understands subscription-based entertainment

• Largest music streaming service

Cons:

• Price tag

• Already own Songza, another music service

• A bidding war could emerge between Google and Facebook

Pros:• 50 million subscribers

• Producing quality exclusive content

• Available on most modern devices

Cons:

• Price tag

• Already own other video streaming services

GOOGLE’S FUTUREACQUISITION PREDICTIONS

INTERESTINGGOOGLE FACTS

THE 2 YEARS PRIOR TO

JANUARY 2014

GOOGLEOUTSPENTITS 5 CLOSEST RIVALSON ACQUISITIONS

COMBINED

GOOGLE CEOLARRY PAGEUSES THE TOOTHBRUSH TESTTO SEE IF A COMPANY IS WORTH BUYING

IS THIS SOMETHING YOU WILL USEONCE OR TWICEA DAY, & DOES ITMAKE YOURLIFE BETTER?

Sources: forbes.com / techcrunch.com / marketingland.com / bbc.co.uk / nytimes.co.uk / theguardian.com / ft.com