Google Replaces Its Head Of M&A With Don Harrison, Will Open A New Late-Stage Investment Group

Drew Olanoff

Drew Olanoff has over 10 years of marketing, PR, customer service and support, relationship building and management, product management, and technical support experience in multiple verticals. Online, including mobile. He prides himself on being a connector. Connecting people, stories, information. He has worked under some amazingly talented and gifted PR pros while working for startups as a “Director of Community”,... → Learn More

Friday, December 7th, 2012
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According to Reuters, Google is making major moves in its mergers and acquisitions group, replacing David Lawee with Don Harrison, a high-ranking lawyer at the company.

Here’s what Reuters shared about the move; we have reached out to Google for comment:

Google Inc is replacing the head of its in-house mergers and acquisitions group with one of its top lawyers and is planning to create a new late-stage investment group that longtime and outgoing corporate development chief David Lawee will oversee, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Don Harrison, a high-ranking lawyer at Google, will replace Lawee as head of the Internet search company’s mergers and acquisitions team.

This move would be interesting for many reasons, including the fact that Google already has an early-stage arm called Google Ventures, which has been cracking away on investing in smaller teams with big ideas.

Basically, Google has a lot of money to play with to grow and can have a hand in helping other late-stage companies grow. Why not do it?

UPDATE: We’ve confirmed that Don Harrison will be leading Corporate Development beginning in 2013, and that David Lawee will be working with Google on other initiatives.

[Photo credit: Flickr]


Company: Google
Website: google.com
Launch Date: September 7, 1998
IPO: NASDAQ:GOOG

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...

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