Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes and no. Sundar has no more vision than Larry does yet somehow is paid $200m+ a year and in my mind is the most unjustifiably overpaid CEO by a huge margin. At least Larry founded the company and contributed to turning into the behemoth it is. Sunday is a random associate product manager who somehow managed to ride the wave of Chrome to somehow becoming CEO.
> Sundar has no more vision than Larry does yet somehow is paid $200m+ a year and in my mind is the most unjustifiably overpaid CEO by a huge margin. Do you have a source for this? My understanding is that this $200m figure is a multi-year figure to keep him at Google. I wouldn’t characterize him as random though. Larry seemed to like him because he is able to handle conflict very well.
Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
461–470 of 784 posts
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, but they’re not going to make money off the hardware, it’s going to be the services and ad targeting based off of the data. You think chromecast is to make a profit?
This is a continuation of the trite bit. What's missing is recognizing that Alphabet (not Google) is very focused on diversifying its revenue stream beyond search advertising, ideally in a way that takes advantage of the things it's already good at. GCP is a good example. No search. No ads. No using of customer data. Just a desire for a really big potential revenue stream that builds on Google's expertise in managing…
Very focused, but not very good at it thus far. Their revenue is still 80-90% advertising revenue.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
> as in, Google didn't buy you just for the team 2.1B isn't an acquihire. They want the customers, the team, and the manufacturing chain at the very least.
Nah, what they want is me, ie. my data. I'm throwing away that fitbit (Google Personal information gathering device) and deleting my account. I'm informed enough to make that decision. Unfortunately thousands of users that just got sold out are not. Fuck Google.
We live in fast times.
In a little less than a decade the perception of Google went from 'Best search on the internet' and 'Do no evil' to 'Fuck Google' and 'Delete your accounts with them'; and 'their search has gotten exponentially worse'
No skin in the game from me (I only use Gmail for non-essential shopping), just an observation. Personally, I think it's great. I'm proud to stand with the vocal minority against the rampant data collection and trade.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not about them trying , they don't have the competence that it takes to sell phones worldwide. It takes years to build relationships with the carriers -- where most phones are sold.
You mean the carriers they have relationships with for Fi? https://fi.google.com/about/international-rates/
Those are roaming agreements. It’s a lot easier to get roaming agreements than your phone in retail stores.
Notice that they don’t offer Google Fi for sell internationally and they also don’t offer free roaming like t-mobile.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#465If Google wants to be successful in the devices segment, they should first try to release appealing products.
I am currently in the market for a better phone, and had high hopes in the Pixel 4. Sadly, the reviews about the battery life will make it a pass. For a giant company like Google, this seems like a major mistake you can not afford to make given the level of the competition.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#466Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had to google for what "^H" meant. Found an interesting answer and backstory: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/386870.html
TIL Google had a Yahoo Answers clone...
Not exactly a clone, you had to pay to get answers on Google Answers.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
A long and success history of acquisitions doesn't mean Google has any advantage of taking a poorly performing acquisition (Fitbit) and stacking it into a failing division of theirs (Wear OS). Google would be better off starting over. But Google wants data and Fitbit comes with data for cheap, IMO.
Fitbit also comes with users, brand recognition and goodwill.
How valuable is the brand these days? It's certainly already declining, and many people consider their products inferior quality. I am currently wearing a fitbit and have already had to deal with it not working twice today, and it's not even noon.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
What long and successful history? The only one that I can think of that was a definite success is Android. Their only notable hardware acquisitions that I can think of were Motorola which was a disaster, Nest which is barely muddling along, and the semi-acquisition of HTC’s hardware team that made the Pixel. While the Pixel may be a great phone, it isn’t taking the world by storm
the Motorola acquisition wasn't a disaster. It's just that many didn't understand Google' intent with Motorola. Google tried to take a stake in Nortel's patent bid, as the wireless patent war started heating up in 2011, but it eventually bailed out. Google instead went after Moto's patent portfolio. It bought the entire company, which came with $3B free cash and tax credit, and stripped off unnecessary assets it didn…
> All in all, Google ended up paying less than $4B for what they had previously valued at $5B.
A month ago WeWork was valued several times higher than it is today. It doesn't matter if you got a good deal on paper - what matters is if you got a good deal.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#470RIP FitBit. Google bought you, which means that a good lineup of products will be killed or infected with buggy, slow, limited and unimaginative software from Google. Prepare to reboot your Fitbits daily. Maybe those always on displays can display Coke or Pepsi ad or two while you are jogging and figure out that you are dehydrated and out of the water, as ad-tech is the only thing that works in the whole Google empir…
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