14 DAY TRIAL // Over the years, Google has made quite a few acquisitions, some more expensive than others, and some more important than others.
Business Insider put together a list of the some of the most important companies Google managed to buy and why the purchases are so important.
First off is Makani Power, a green energy startup that cost Google $30 million (€22.4 million). The company was purchased back in May 2013 and has been operating under Google X Labs building airborne wind turbines. The company has reportedly been working on a prototype for this, which would give the company an edge in the clean energy market and would likely help the company provide 100 percent green energy for its data centers.
Second is Zagat, a company bought in September 2011 which provided Google with a lot of content to include in Maps, Earth and Search since there’s such a huge collection of ratings and reviews.
In April, Google bought Titan Aerospace, a company that builds solar-powered flying drones, for $60 million (€44.86 million). DNNresearch Inc. was another important purchase for Google, even if the company only shelled out $5 million (€3.73 million). The Canadian company has been working on an experimental neural network that uses a computer to simulate the processes within the human brain.
Similarly, DeepMind Technologies delves in artificial intelligence and has cost Google a hefty $650 million, while Boston Dynamics, a famous robotics company that has been doing research for the Pentagon, was bought for an estimated $500 million (€374 million). Both companies are going to help Google work on developing some interesting projects that have yet to be revealed. Even though there’s a lot of secrecy surrounding this topic, the result can be nothing but great.
Waze was another important purchase for Google. The Israeli GPS and navigation company cost the company nearly $1 billion (€747 million). Information from this company has already been integrated into Google Maps and helps users learn more about the road ahead and the traffic status.
Through the purchase of Nest Labs for $3.2 billion (€2.4 billion), Google bought a ticket on the “Internet of Things” train, allowing the company to get one step closer to helping create an automated house.
Bought back in 2006 for $1.65 billion (€1.23 billion), YouTube has been one of the greatest purchases ever made by Google. It is now the world’s biggest video sharing site and one of the favorite sites of people all over the world.
The most important purchase made by Google is, arguably, Android. Bought in 2005, the startup was only around for less than two years. Google spent $50 million (€37.4 million) for what has since become a multi-billion market. The Android operating system can now be found on smartphones, smartwatches, cars, TVs, tablet computers, video game platforms, and wearable devices.
To this list, we can easily add all the purchases made in the past year in the robotics domain, just because this is such an interesting area.