11–20 of 104 posts
Wow! I've been an avid 'Varker for sometime now and this is very surprising! I think this is probably more of a talent acquisition than anything: Just the _highlights_ from http://vark.com/team * Max Ventilla - former Googler; marketing and monetization * Nathan Stoll - former Googler; headed Google News for three years * Fritz Schneider - former Googler; founded and led Google's Firefox and Safe Browsing teams * Win…
This price seems really high considering the amount of traction aardvark had (not much). $50M is a pricey talent acquisition
It may not be too high if you look at the VC money they had raised. $6M had been invested so if that was a 50% stake then you are looking at a 4x return for the VC. Isn't that about right?
Wow! I've been an avid 'Varker for sometime now and this is very surprising! I think this is probably more of a talent acquisition than anything: Just the _highlights_ from http://vark.com/team * Max Ventilla - former Googler; marketing and monetization * Nathan Stoll - former Googler; headed Google News for three years * Fritz Schneider - former Googler; founded and led Google's Firefox and Safe Browsing teams * Win…
I'm interested to see how this develops. I'd hate for google to drop the ball (a la dodgeball, omnisio, etc.). Vark is such a unique, useful service.
I'd be curious to know how you use the service. Most of the questions I see asked on it seem pretty poor and uninformative.
An example of a question (and an awesome answer) I submitted: http://vark.com/t/cad4a0
Talent doesn't make sense at that price, more like a few million. The tech can't be that out of the ordinary for Google given they just launched Buzz and Wave. So what was it that deserved that price? Bidding war?
Wow! I've been an avid 'Varker for sometime now and this is very surprising! I think this is probably more of a talent acquisition than anything: Just the _highlights_ from http://vark.com/team * Max Ventilla - former Googler; marketing and monetization * Nathan Stoll - former Googler; headed Google News for three years * Fritz Schneider - former Googler; founded and led Google's Firefox and Safe Browsing teams * Win…
Re-hiring a bunch of ex-employees does not look like a talent acquisition. It looks more like someone was shrewd enough to become buddies with the M&A department the first time around.
Additionally, what other business case could their be to purchase such a small, new company. Couldn't Google just have integrated these features into their shiny new Buzz service _last week_ and have overshadowed Vark very quickly?
Where do they get this valuation from? That's greater than $500/user, and their growth curve doesn't look exponential by any means: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/vark.com/?metric=uv . (Yes, I know compete sucks, but often the shape is correct.) Talent doesn't make sense at that price, more like a few million. The tech can't be that out of the ordinary for Google given they just launched Buzz and Wave. So what was…
This is also why they should acquire Yelp -- it's not about the tech (in fact, Yelp is built on Google maps). It's about the interface.
What is the business case for Google in acquiring Aardvark?
Aardvark will integrate extremely naturally into Google Buzz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_W6Qbob2mg#t=10m10s
I was like "this sounds like Aardvark".