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Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

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31–40 of 124 posts

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#31
A lot of the comments below are criticizing "irrational investors" that were "duped" or the product as "vaporware."

This is not the case. Color had a very talented team attempting to attack multiple technically challenging problems, that remain unsolved today.

The first is the discovery of your implicit social network, as defined by your virtual and real-world interactions with others. Facebook currently uses this to determine what information is shown in your News Feed and make friend recommendations, but is not using it to its potential. Google Buzz tried to do this directly via your emails and flopped partly since it did not account for the privacy implications. The ability to transform people's natural interactions into strong recommendations of what they should pay attention to and who should meet each other is still an open problem.

The second is the mapping of real-world events (initially defined by the pictures and people) onto the virtual world. There is potentially a lot of value, both to participants and outsiders, to say (1) who came to real world events, (2) how they interacted, and (3) what happened, while properly dealing with the corresponding ethical implications.

For both of these to work, Color needed a viral social product to gain data and users. They failed on product/market side, especially because they did not have enough focus on "what is the experience we want our users to have the first time they launch the application?" The opportunity remains open, for Color to redeem itself, for the big players to improve their products, or for a new startup to come along and show the world how it's done.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#32
post #19

Is this just pure greed? Did Color think they had a billion dollar idea? From my understanding they're a public photo album. What revenue source did they target?

The same revenue source all "social" sites target: You.

Okay, maybe not "YOU" you, but the end user. A public photo album where you provide who you are (via registration) and WHERE you are? Real-time targeted ads would be just the tip of the iceberg!

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#33
post #12

I feel like I live in a different universe. Can please someone explain to me what rational thinking might be behind such offers?

This was way before Google+ took off. Likely, the Color team would have been an integral part of their social strategy. With that in mind, a $200M offer isn't unreasonable.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#34
post #28
post #12

I feel like I live in a different universe. Can please someone explain to me what rational thinking might be behind such offers?

Is it simply a way to acquire talent?

Bingo. I doubt Google was really interested in Color's business model or app.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#35
Nobody pays $200MM for nothing. It's exceedingly hard to believe google valued a small pre-funding startup at over low eight figures. While most of the time I look at tech crunch leaks and believe they're real albeit spin infused, this just doesn't pass the wtf test. Arrington has appeared to have a grudge against color in the past based on the tone of the TC coverage. I'm inclined to believe this is entirely made up.

This is why you don't want to get your news and journalism from the people who are also financing deals. Now I'm not sure when to trust them at all.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#36
post #31

A lot of the comments below are criticizing "irrational investors" that were "duped" or the product as "vaporware." This is not the case. Color had a very talented team attempting to attack multiple technically challenging problems, that remain unsolved today. The first is the discovery of your implicit social network, as defined by your virtual and real-world interactions with others. Facebook currently uses this to…

Color had a very talented team attempting to attack multiple technically challenging problems, that remain unsolved today.

Sure -- so what? Just because you've got some smart folks trying to solve hard problems doesn't mean you're worth $200 million.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#37
post #33
post #12

I feel like I live in a different universe. Can please someone explain to me what rational thinking might be behind such offers?

This was way before Google+ took off. Likely, the Color team would have been an integral part of their social strategy. With that in mind, a $200M offer isn't unreasonable.

>$200M offer isn't unreasonable.

You have _got_ to be kidding me

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#38
post #12

I feel like I live in a different universe. Can please someone explain to me what rational thinking might be behind such offers?

Remember, Color's real mission was not photo-sharing, but data-mining. Google would pay dearly for a new, innovative way of collecting types of data that they don't have yet.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#39
post #31

A lot of the comments below are criticizing "irrational investors" that were "duped" or the product as "vaporware." This is not the case. Color had a very talented team attempting to attack multiple technically challenging problems, that remain unsolved today. The first is the discovery of your implicit social network, as defined by your virtual and real-world interactions with others. Facebook currently uses this to…

For both of these to work, Color needed a viral social product to gain data and users.

I don't disagree with your analysis, but surely one surefire way to gain social network data is to be bought by someone who has the data already. Google has a pretty good idea who a gmail user's social network is, as evidenced by the Google Plus suggestions.

Re: Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No.

#40
post #35

Nobody pays $200MM for nothing. It's exceedingly hard to believe google valued a small pre-funding startup at over low eight figures. While most of the time I look at tech crunch leaks and believe they're real albeit spin infused, this just doesn't pass the wtf test. Arrington has appeared to have a grudge against color in the past based on the tone of the TC coverage. I'm inclined to believe this is entirely made up…

-->"It's exceedingly hard to believe google valued a small pre-funding startup at over low eight figures." But Sequoia did when they made the $40mm investment. That's what's so odd about it.
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