I’d love to one-day read about what happened to Jotspot at Google as not only did it take an age to come to be, what finally emerged on the other side was a shadow of its former itself. Google’s simplicity doctrine culled all the cool stuff and what was the industry-leading wiki platform became wiki-for-dummies. In which case, why bother acquiring in the first place as surely it would have made sense to just have built that from scratch on the Google platform. I mean, c’mon, a business Wiki platform without page-level permissions!

Nik,

As my tweet said, I think that Google is trying to get their application framework out there via Google App Engine:
http://code.google.com/appengine/

The payoff for them might be more startups that are easier for them to acquire and the reward for startups is that the ability to scale, quickly and easily, is built into your app from day one.

Of course it might have the opposite effect, by making those startups that use Google App Engine only valuable to Google and not other potential investors – but that’s probably not going to be much of a hassle if Google App Engine is really rolled out as they have said it will be.

Cheers,
Angus

Excellent article and great points Nik.

I wonder if the “mortality rate” for apps acquired by Google hurts their chances for potential future acquisitions?

Nick,
Good Article.
But for GrandCentral..

I am still using grandcentral and i still get my calls and the service is still working fine for me. So my calls are still coming.

Thanks to TC for letting me know about GrandCentral…

Hurray to Mike..
Cheers, Nag

And Jaiku for heavens sake! What are they doing with that!

While It is true that Google acquisitions do seem to get derailed, I do not think the problem is technology. Firstly, the Google technology Stack is like it is for a very good reason, it is scalable beyond belief. Also, it is worth noting that all of the Google technology stack is available through Open Source projects like Hadoop and Hypertable. Any forward looking company should be looking to adopt the new scalable technology stack, or they risk being overwhelmed by success such as Twitter has.

iron의 생각…

They spend years building on a technology stack that nobody else is using….

[...] this article on TechCrunchIT Nik Cubrilovic gives more detail on the acquistions that haven’t gone so well [...]

I was about to use JotSpot with clients prior to its purchase. And now without a documentated XMl API (you do appear to add format=xml for urls or something similar), it has dropped off the map as a true business ready platform.

I agree with #6 that it isn’t all technology. We are perhaps asking for too much too quickly in these days of cloud computing, online collaboration and rich internet apps. But I hope the pace does get quicker.

On the Gillmor Gang the other day, Steve asked some Google product managers about the possibility of Google launching a Twitter clone. They were apparently completely unaware that Google already owns Jaiku. But then, everyone at Google seems unaware of the fact at this point.

…… Jaiku? I know it was not a big deal as Youtube, but once acquired by google Jaiku has been put in beta testing state and registration are closed since Oct/Nov 2007.
http://www.jaiku.com/blog/2007/10/09/were-joining-google/

If you can’t beat them, buy them and stall them to death.

Welcome to Google, the Startup Killer!

I agree with Richard Taylor insofar as that I don’t believe that technology is the reason. I think we may have finally found something that Google is not so good at and that is integrating acquired companies. Integrating technology is no excuse for a service to stop exepting new users/customers. Actually, if you plan on stopping acquiring customers once an acquisition has taken place, you might as well not buy the company at all.

Imagine this M&A pitch to the CEO: “So, we buy these guys for $45million, The first thing we do is stop accepting new users. Then we fiddle around for 18 months. Then, should users still care and no competitor have overtaken us, we will re-launch. By then, we will have killed all momentum. And all the enthusiatic people inside the company have left. And all our evangelists have grown bored with us. But it really is a great deal!!”

Which CEO wold give the green light to that?

Good article but one thing springs to mind. Given this reliance on a “proprietary” infrastructure (I know it’s not truly prop but bear with me) is this a weakness in Google’s armoury? We can all think of dozens of companies who have gone down the prop route and come to a sticky ugle bloody mess. I’m not suggesting for one minute that it’ll happen to Google anytime soon but if it did….

[...] obvious example of promising startup acquired by Google that has languished. But as TechCrunchIT points out there are others and, more specifically, often a long delay between the time of a company’s [...]

The tech might still be proprietary, but google have been pretty open with the concepts and the research behind mapreduce and bigtable. the biggest problems developers have, isn’t switching tech. ask any Java dev that’s had to work on python or c# or vice versa.

What kills you is the shift in thinking. that’s what takes time, changing from c to java took years for companies to get right. And vb to c#/.net for MS houses. Lisp to anything, etc.

Bigtable and mapreduce are shifts in approaches, and by google opening up their research and explaining things you’ve got other implementations (For mapreduce you’ve got Hadoop by apache, for bigtable you’ve got hbase & simpledb) that’ll allow a dev to get up to speed with the thinking and then it’s a simply “getting to know the libraries” experience.

[...] DodgeBall is the most obvious example of one that has seemed to languish. But as TechCrunchIT points out there are others and, more specifically, often a long delay between the time of a company’s [...]

[...] Google Slows own Acquired Companies”. You will want to read the full text of the essay here. In addition to offering a compelling array of data to support his assertion that Google hobbles [...]

[...] Nik Cubrilovic had reported this and he gave pretty justified reasons as to why this happens to whatever firm Google Acquires. The major thing here is the issue involved at what Google has used to build its empire upon; MapReduce and BigTable both of which are very rarely used by developers in the developer community. The number ranges in a few thousand while other developers, for platforms like .Net Win32 API, Apache, PHP etc are in millions. The result more and more applications can be easily integrated and implemented upon companies running themselves on these technologies. [...]

[...] Cubrilovic explains that something akin to the above, does actually happen to companies acquired by [...]

GrandCentral is working great for me, I honestly wouldn’t want them to change much. Love it.

It’s only natural that being absorbed into a big company will slow down a startup. This happened when the company I sold to Cisco got absorbed, and it really pissed me off at first. But the upside is that the product will go through a much more rigorous process for the next release, so you can count on it being infinitely more tested, documented, and defined. Not sure if it’s such a good thing FOREVER, but most startups need to go through this process at some point in order to get up to “globally scalable” status.

[...] esta página intentan explicar el proceso de adaptación de una compañía a la estructura de Google. Algunos ejemplos claros de este freno son DodgeBall, una red social para móviles, MeasureMap o [...]

I liked Jaiku much more then Twitter, but after Google acquisition they have just disappeared. No more blog posts abut them, no one from my friends joined Jaiku and now I have to use Twitter just like everybody else..

Basically, they have done the same thing with SketchUp, a 3d modeler. This tool is used by many many professionals. It is a wonderfull tool and Google has never released any version. Last version was released before they acquired @Last (the creator company). Ok they gave a version out,… but basically they didn’t add anything to it. They just made sure that the program name read “Google SketchUp” after that ,… there is this huge,… 1 1/2 yr silence…

Many ppl are getting very aggitated!

Once an acquisition is complete the arriving group has to compete with internal projects for resources, and this means establishing a political base within the company. Google is famous for tough politics, so I imagine that one big problem with acquisitions is how long it takes to make the politics work.

[...] Cubrilovic over at TechCrunch, meanwhile, has written an interesting article about Google’s acquisition strategy and whether its apparent insistence that acquired [...]

Google has clearly become a dinosaur. They need to be broken up.

[...] Un interessante post sulle strategie di Google One of the first main challenges for a company that has been acquired by Google is adopting the proprietary technology stack used within the company. Google does use Linux and open source, but their core technologies are all internal to the company. I have heard that it can take a new engineer at Google anywhere from 3-6 months to become accustomed to using these tools and services. The table below sets out the Google stack and the technologies used: [...]

[...] pas remarqué le titre dans l’URL “Google whare companies go to die ” Why Google Slows Down Acquired Companies Tags: AppEngine, BigTable, Google, [...]

It was clear from a brief conversation with Jyri Engestrom, Jaiku co-founder, at Google that the group is actively working on things and will resurface at some point along the timeline Nik suggests.

Um, a counterexample: Writely might be the second-best transition to Google after YouTube.
Ongoing support never stopped for what was maybe a moderately sized user base (not as big as YouTube’s, not as small as JotSpot’s). New user signups were paused for about 4 months during which Upstartle seem to have managed to move from ASP .NET to Google’s quirky infrastructure with nary a blip. The post-Gintegration version is waaay better than the original, seems to have a high profile within Google, and has a growing feature set.

[...] (i.e. ‘Want to increase the chances of being acquired by Google – build on AppEngine’). “Because of the difference in technology, it can take a company anywhere from a year to three … Comment | Trackback [...]

[...] las primeras, es un buen ejemplo de un startup comprado por Google que luego ha languidecido. Como destaca TechCrunchIT hay más, y muchas veces suele haber un periodo largo entre la adquisición de una [...]

I wrote about the Google failure also but I didn’t had so much information. Great article which shows the drawbacks of the mighty Google.
http://www.graphicrating.com/2008/07/09/off-topic-google-will-fail/

Nice article Nik

[...] interesante artículo de TechCrunchIT, “Why Google slows down acquired companies“ (gracias, Julio), especula con el llamado “síndrome post-adquisición” sobre el [...]

[...] justify their 100 million dollar purchase. Switching onto the Windows platform is no small task and switching to a unfamiliar closed platform magnifies the complexity. However, it is rumored that Microsoft runs some BSD servers internally, in which case the Powerset [...]

[...] a Enrique Dans y TechCrunchIT hablando sobre los problemas de ser adquirido por Google y la falta de evolución que se produce en [...]

[...] Si uno echa un ojo a las adquisiciones que ha hecho Google desde su tierno nacimiento, verá cuán ingente cantidad de empresas ha absorbido que se encontraban en sectores en los que ellos estaban entrando o pretendían entrar. Qué sorpresa, dirán Uds.: como todas las empresas del mundo. Porque Google compra igual que todas ellas: compra para comerse a la competencia potencial, y compra para aprovechar recursos. Si están trabajando desde hace un tiempo en una búsqueda social Diggstyle, y Digg es a la vez un potencial competidor (a corto y medio plazo, de Google News. A largo plazo, quién sabe) y una fuente de valiosos recursos, y tienen dinero en caja o quién les financie, ¿por qué no comprar? Algo que, además, puede ser rentable desde el mismo momento en que se adquiera, porque, hoy por hoy, Digg es rentable. A no ser que pase como con tantas otras adquisiciones, que se quede medio parada durante un tiempo. No sería muy inteligente, aunque quizá sí inevitable. [...]

[...] is much longer. TechCrunchIT is running an interesting post that suggests one of the key reasons: Google’s proprietary tech stack. While Google is a big open source supporter for lower level infrastructure, once you get above [...]

Acquisitions are almost always about management ego, not product synergy. It makes managers the center of attention as they are in an acquisition deal. Oooh! Just be around when these deals are going on. You can feel it in the air. All rational discourse is abandoned in the face of closing the deal!

[...] (Via TechCrunchIT.) [...]

[...] Why Google slows down acquired companies [...]

[...] modelo de negocio y trabajo de Google, que según dicen los entendidos puede tomar hasta 6 meses, si deseas mas información puedes visitar TechCrunchIT Tags: BigTable, Google, Mapreduce Artículos [...]

[...] um post do TechChrunchIT, isso pode ser explicado pelo fato de que engenheiros e desenvolvedores das empresas compradas [...]

[...] from, as it is really cruddified — it will do for now, but I suggest growing an exit plan), TechCrunchIT has a resonant post about Google acquiring and then slowly suffocating interesting startups. The angle that made my [...]

[...] has turned to Google to assist with serving the load on high-traffic feeds. Over at TechcrunchIT I recently wrote about the problems that some acquired companies have experienced at Google. The proprietary software and [...]

[...] has turned to Google to assist with serving the load on high-traffic feeds. Over at TechcrunchIT I recently wrote about the problems that some acquired companies have experienced at Google. The proprietary software and [...]

[...] is much longer. TechCrunchIT is running an interesting post that suggests one of the key reasons: Google’s proprietary tech stack. While Google is a big open source supporter for lower level infrastructure, once you get above [...]

[...] Google hires smart people to have someone able to tackle their bureaucracy… 20080815 0635 Friday # reported by ep # Filed [...]

[...] Google hires smart people to have someone able to tackle their bureaucracy… in any case 3-6 months to become accustomed to using their tools sounds scary. 20080815 [...]

[...] competitor by requiring the Finnish startup to labor away for months integrating its service into Google’s technology stack instead of rolling out new features. All the while, new signups have been disabled and invitations [...]

[...] competitor by requiring the Finnish startup to labor away for months integrating its service into Google’s technology stack instead of rolling out new features. All the while, new signups have been disabled and invitations [...]

[...] 昨秋Googleに買収されて以来、Jaikuに関して静寂が続いていた。Googleがフィンランドのスタートアップに、新機能の開発よりもGoogleのテクノロジー群への統合に力を注がせ、このTwitterの最も恐れるライバルを潰してしまうのではないかと、心配されていた。この間ずっと新規登録が停止され招待も制限されていたため、サービスへの新規ユーザーの健全な流れが断たれていた。 [...]

[...] competitor by requiring the Finnish startup to labor away for months integrating its service into Google’s technology stack instead of rolling out new features. All the while, new signups have been disabled and invitations [...]

[...] competitor by requiring the Finnish startup to labor away for months integrating its service into Google’s technology stack instead of rolling out new features. All the while, new signups have been disabled and invitations [...]

[...] Why Google slows down acquired companies Google est-il l’endroit où les sociétés vont pour mourir ? En tout cas, cet article met l’accent sur les problèmes des startups rachetées par le géant d’Internet. Ces dernières ont en effet beaucoup de mal à intégrer les technologies de Google et n’ont plus le temps de proposer de nouveaux services à leurs utilisateurs. [...]

[...] Techcrunchit, escribí recientemente acerca de los problemas que algunas empresas adquiridas han experimentado en Google. El software [...]

[...] competidor de Twitter,  al pedirle a la empresa finlandesa que trabaje durante meses para integrar toda la tecnología de Google a su servicio, en lugar de lanzar nuevas características. Mientras tanto, se supendió el registro [...]

[...] got acquired by Google in October 2007. Google acquisition has many times meant a kiss of death to many startups. The Jaiku community strongly believed Jaiku would be an exception. At least until now it [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] Feedburnerはウェブサイトのコンテンツの更新をRSSでフィードするサービスの一つだが、ローンチ当初から、あれやこれや不具合について苦情が出ていた。しかし、 Googleが$100M（1億ドル）も出してこの会社を買収したからにはそれらは改善されると思うのが普通だろう。ところが、状況は良くなるどころか、サービスはさらに信頼性を欠くようになった。Feedburner問題はウェブサイト運営者にとって余計な頭痛の種になっている。Googleにはもともと買収した会社をそのまま放っておく悪癖があるが、それにしてもFeedburnerについては、これだけ時間が経っているのだから、きちんとした運営をしてもらわないと困る。われわれのようなサイトはコンテンツを広い範囲に流通させるためにRSSフィードに頼っている。主としてRSSフィードを通じてTechCrunchの記事を読んでいる読者は200万近い。これらの読者のほとんどは一度もサイト自体を訪問しない。しかし、そうであっても、フィード購読を登録するという積極的な行為をしたのだから、われわれにとって非常に貴重な読者だ。それに大部分はずっと購読を続けてくれている。しかし、フィードがきちんと機能しないと、非常に不愉快なことになる。ここ何年も、いちばん頻繁に起きている問題は、記事の配信が遅れることだ。Feedburnerの配信は何分も、あるいはそれ以上に遅れることが珍しくない。緊急速報の場合、これは致命的だ。RSSフィードの管理にFeedburnerを使う最大の理由は、購読者数や購読傾向などのデータを含め、ユーザー情報のフィードバックが得られるからだ。一部のデータは一般に公開される。たとえばわれわれは前日の登録購読者数を表示するウィジェットを（現在、ページの右下隅に）設置している。通常このウィジェットの示す数字は170万前後だ。ところが今日、見てみるとゼロになっていた。数多くの他のサイトでもこの問題が起きている。（下にTwitterのスクリーンショットを貼っておいた）。Feedburnerの公式ブログは2008年12月に閉鎖され、ユーザーはその代りにFeedburnerへの広告掲載をテーマにしたブログを読むように言われた。Googleがフィードに広告を掲載して収入が得られるようにしてくれるのは運営者にとってもたいへんけっこうなことには違いない。しかしそれもフィード配信の品質をきちんと維持した上でのことだ。それができなければビジネスモデルは崩壊してしまう。公式ブログの閉鎖は、GoogleがFeedburnerにブログなど必要ない、単に広告を載せるための容器に過ぎないと考えているのではないかと疑わせる。検索サービスについてGoogleが同じような態度をとったらいったいどんな騒ぎになることやら。Feedburnerには現在知られれている問題というページがあって、このサービスに現在あるバグを公表している。このページを見ると、運営チームは日々のオペレーションを続けていくだけでたくさんの問題を抱えていることがわかる。その上、購読者数がゼロ表示になるという問題は、発生からすでに何日も経っているにもかかわらず、このページに報告されていない。これもまた赤信号だ。私にとってFeedburnerがダウンするというのは、家の電気を止められるのと同じくらい困る。そうなったが最後、回復するのをじっと待つ以外、代替手段はない。そして直接、間接にありとあらゆる悪影響が生じるのだ。今後もわれわれにFeedburnerを使ってもらいたいなら、Googleから今後はきちんとした運営をするという保証をしてもらわねばならない。今のところ、Googleにそんなことをする気配はないようだ。Feedburnerチームの諸君は仕事をいっしょうけんめいやっており、顧客のことも気にかけている。しかし、明らかに、きちんとした運営をするには人手ないしその他の資源が不足しているのだ。CrunchBase InformationFeedBurnerGoogleInformation provided by CrunchBase[原文へ]（翻訳：Namekawa, U） ShowListings(“arc3″); ShowListings(“arc2″); AddClipsUrl = ‘http://jp.techcrunch.com/archives/20090122feedburner-needs-to-get-it-together/'; AddClipsTitle = ‘Feedburnerには運営をきちんとしてもらわなくては困る’; AddClipsId = ’2CBE02C952CFE’; AddClipsBcolor=’#78BE44′; AddClipsNcolor=’#D1E9C0′; AddClipsTcolor=’#666666′; AddClipsType=’1′; AddClipsVerticalAlign=’middle’; 前の投稿へ トラックバック [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] problems plague website owners far more than they should. And while Google is notoriously slow in absorbing its acquisitions, it’s far past time for them to get their act together and turn Feedburner into a grown up [...]

[...] acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or [...]

[...] The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so. [...]

[...] The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so. [...]

[...] Moreover all this was expected at the time of acquisition as the service has been rebuilt from the ground up to run on Google’s proprietary technology stack. [...]

[...] Moreover all this was expected at the time of acquisition as the service has been rebuilt from the ground up to run on Google’s proprietary technology stack. [...]

[...] The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so. [...]

[...] The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so. [...]

[...] The same thing happened to Blogger, during it’s transition period TypePad and WordPress took off, Dodgeball allowed Twitter to grow, etc, etc.  Once you look at all of their acquisitions with a bit more critical eye, you start to see that this is their general MO.  Close registration, stop innovation, and let other technologies zoom right by.  So next time I see that a startup is purchased by Google I’ll make the sign of the cross, say a little prayer, and spin around three times whilst spitting over my shoulder, hoping that they survive the transition.  As to why they let this happen, I’ll leave that to the Tech experts and their explanation of Google’s coding practices over at TechcrunchIT. [...]

[...] Potential Growth: Yes, being acquired by a giant such as Google for example, will probably allow for the startup to gain more recognition and in return attract [...]

[...] The 21 month delay between acquisition and relaunch was, unfortunately, expected. Like most Google acquisitions, the service has been rebuilt from the ground up, a lengthy process that has in the past taken an average of 16 months or so. [...]

[...] Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today [...]

[...] Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today [...]

[...] Website Google Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today [...]

[...] Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today [...]

[...] 22 Nov 2009 Google Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today [...]

[...] not the first to notice this. See also these posts by: yours truly, 37signals, Dare Obasanjo, TechCrunch, and [...]

[...] at TechCrunch IT reckons this is because of Google’s proprietary software stack. In Why Google Slows Down Acquired Companies, he says: One of the first main challenges for a company that has been acquired by Google is [...]