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Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#51

Post by coffeemug »

seiji wrote: post #22
bgraves wrote: post #8

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…

There was a time I believed all corporate activities were based only on merit. Anything not completely merit derived would be illegal. That's what we're made to believe with all kinds of anti-descriminition laws (you can't ask age, about kids, etc during interviews for example). It turns out, everything is friend based. Know rich people? They'll help you get rich too. Have a project you don't want to do inside of Goo…

Know rich people? They'll help you get rich too.

What you may not realize is that everyone is knowable if you put enough effort into it. If you have no drive and no talent, rich people won't be able to help you. There aren't that many driven and talented people out there, so if you're one of them, and you make an effort to meet rich people, they'll help you too.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#52

Post by rwebb »

Timothee wrote: post #47
alavrik wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make a lot more money, for example.

Though in their case, with 4 founders, $6M invested and a $50M exit, it's not "that much" money. I wouldn't spit on it obviously, but considering some of these guys' former positions at Google, they had probably made a good amount from stocks and such. What I'm trying to say is that it's probably in the same order of magnitude of their worth before that.

this thread of comments is laughably naive.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#53

Post by jackmoore »

Timothee wrote: post #47
alavrik wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make a lot more money, for example.

Though in their case, with 4 founders, $6M invested and a $50M exit, it's not "that much" money. I wouldn't spit on it obviously, but considering some of these guys' former positions at Google, they had probably made a good amount from stocks and such. What I'm trying to say is that it's probably in the same order of magnitude of their worth before that.

Ok, Michael Steele

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#54

Post by derwiki »

seldo wrote: post #19

While there is definitely a bunch of talent on the team, I'd say this is definitely a technology acquisition, but specifically a UI acquisition -- Google could build the back-end to vark tomorrow, but the user interaction is something they could never have come up with. 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.

The map part seems like an easily switchable component, and the bulk of Yelp is the community and the reviews themselves. Also, I think other parts of Yelp use Bing and Yahoo maps.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#55

Post by jackowayed »

frossie wrote: post #43
martian wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ask an interesting, detailed question, you'll usually get something unique in return. An example of a question (and an awesome answer) I submitted: http://vark.com/t/cad4a0

You thought that was an awesome answer? IMHO the top Google result for the search "Borges where to start" gives a better one. Like many social networking features, I don't get this one. I sorta-know what my friends know - I am more interested in stuff my friends don't know.

It's not just limited to your friends. I have a fairly small network on vark (~8 people I think), but I think only 1 time have I actually gotten a question from one of my friends. It extends to friends of friends and even just random people if it doesn't think your friends know or they choose not to answer.

I've also never actually gotten a question from a friend.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#56

Post by seldo »

derwiki wrote: post #54
seldo wrote: post #19

While there is definitely a bunch of talent on the team, I'd say this is definitely a technology acquisition, but specifically a UI acquisition -- Google could build the back-end to vark tomorrow, but the user interaction is something they could never have come up with. 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.

The map part seems like an easily switchable component, and the bulk of Yelp is the community and the reviews themselves. Also, I think other parts of Yelp use Bing and Yahoo maps.

Sure, but my point is that Yelp's core tech of storing venue information, ratings and reviews is not "hard" -- Google and Yahoo both have services that do this. But it beats the pants off of them because its user interface and social dynamics encourage better data.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#57

Post by paul »

seiji wrote: post #44
paul wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just want to world to recognize you as "having merit" and give you money? You want to be successful, but are unwilling to make any sort of effort? Create something remarkable and people with money will find you.

I see how it can be read that way. By "merit," I meant actual accomplishments and not some ethereal quality of a person or group just sitting idle. I'm glad you chimed in though because you're one of the cases that kind-of fits the model above. From a complete outsider's point of view, it looks like friends giving friends tens of millions of dollars for nebulous reasons. * Disclaimer: Text is a poor medium of communi…

What am I a case of?

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#58

Post by axod »

sachinag wrote: post #50

$50 million is the same price as GrandCentral, which became Google Voice. It's all but impossible to tell how important strategically any one acquisition is to Google until they execute on it. This feels more important than Jaiku/Dodgeball, but really, only time will tell if $50 million was a bargain or a giveaway.

For a small forum with not much traction, only something like 3000 questions posted a day, it seems slightly insane to me...

Sometimes I guess acquisitions are just random, and likely more about the people involved than anything else.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#59

Post by mixmax »

Assuming VC's got 30% of the company that's a payout of $15 million from an investment of $6 million giving a little more than 100% a return on investment. These numbers are educated guesses of course, but it doesn't seem like the VC's got a lot out of this. Normally it's expected that the homeruns give a 1000% return on investment.

Re: Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million

#60

Post by robryan »

bgraves wrote: post #32
henrikschroder wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you quit a company, do a successful startup, and then get re-acquired by the company you quit in the first place, chances are that you don't want to go back to work for them again. If you did, why did you quit your job in the first place?

It would depend on the events which led up to leaving Google in the first place. I doubt the original team left Google because it wasn't challenging enough or there wasn't enough flexibility, both of which would be reason enough to leave a lesser company to go out on your own. If your logic was accurate, then why would Aardvark have even sold out to Google in the first place?

Possibly these people liked their idea enough and though they could make a lot more going it alone, now they like the idea of Google support in perusing continuing to peruse their idea.

Just a guess really, but what they are doing now make be considerably more exciting than what they were doing at Google previously.

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