Google Rumored to Have Bought Plaxo

With the Microsoft bid that stands on Yahoo's table, Google saw that it couldn't linger any longer in its absolute dominance of the advertising market and that it needs to move. First it offered Yahoo! a sort of helping hand, letting it know that it is willing to take over their share of the advertising, if they so choose to drop it altogether and reorient their policy on music and whatnot. Next, Google started quietly asking around about what companies are for sale, out of those that could help its social network shortcoming.

So far, two rumors have been circulating about companies that were contracted by the Mountain View-based company. The first is Bebo, who has been shopping itself around again, and I covered it yesterday. Today, there surfaced rumors about Plaxo, an online contact management, that would be even cheaper than Bebo, sub - $200million. This possible acquisition would impact on several other Google products, such as Gmail, faulty exactly where Plaxo can help.

By thinking ahead and planning to merge all the user accounts into one, from which everything else will be accessible, Google's face automatically lights up when Plaxo is around. Given the tight connection on managerial and executive levels between the two companies, this deal is more likely to go through: Plaxo board members, Ram Shriram and Michael Moritz, were among the original board members of Google. Shriram still serves on Google's board, while Moritz stepped down from Google's board last March, Wired's Epicenter reports.

Not surprisingly, there has been no comment from the online contact management company, as one of its representatives told the named source that they had a policy of not taking into account merger and acquisition rumors. Be that as it may, Google is definitely up to something and the only thing that remains to be seen is what.