14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been on an acquisition spree for the past year. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted about a year ago, the pace of acquisitions picked up significantly.
According to a study by a private research firm, Google acquired 23 companies this year alone, almost as many as in 2007, 2008 and 2009 put together.
"Google is maintaining a torrid acquisition pace in 2010 with 23 acquisitions year-to-date (with over one quarter still to go). The year’s total is nearly equivalent to Google’s cumulative acquisition total from 2007 to 2009," CB Insights wrote in its report.
"After a brief respite during the recession in 2008 and 2009, Google appears to be making up for lost time with this year’s acquisition levels as can be seen below which shows the company’s acquisition activity since 2001," it added.
"More interesting, however, is what sectors Google is focused on as can be seen in the second graph," it explained.
If Google continues at this pace, it may very well close in on 30 acquisitions by the end of the year. That's more than double its busiest year to date, 2007 when it made 15 acquisitions.
The recession hit Google just like anyone else so in 2008 and 2009, the acquisition pace dropped significantly. Google bought just four companies in 2008 and six in the next year.
As you'd expect, Google's interests are still squarely focused on the web, with 20 of the companies acquired being internet related. However, it bought a couple of mobile companies as well and the secretive chip-maker Agnilux.
Very recently, Google has been looking to beef up its social prowess and has acquired a number of startups in the social networking and social gaming space.
Google's largest attempted acquisition for the year, flight data provider ITA, is currently being challenged by the FTC. [via RWW]