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Google's M&A Chief: We Didn't Need Instagram And Weren't Interested (GOOG)

Matt Lynley

zuckerberg lawee

Facebook snapped up Instagram for $1 billion after just a few days of negotiations, beating Google and several others to the punch.

Except, Google didn't appear to be interested in Instagram in the first place, according to David Lawee, Google's vice president of corporate development and M&A chief.

We caught up with him for a brief chat on Thursday. Here's what he said:

"We fundamentally have a different strategy around Google+ and social (than Facebook). What's necessary for us is different than what's necessary for them."

He also said Pinterest was a "phenomenon that is extraordinary" when talking about some of the video discovery problems he faces.

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source: www.businessinsider.com

20 Apr 2012

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Leaked Memo Reveals Gawker Has Multiple Million-Dollar Advertising Accounts

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 114 days ago

e commerce business

gawker media

erin pettigrew

o girlfriend

media empire

Ad Age's Jason Del Rey has published an email Nick Denton sent to his staff at Gawker Media. In it, Denton emphasized that the company will be taking e-commerce seriously, and Denton intends for it to become a meaningful source of revenue for his media empire in 2013. Denton told Del Rey via Google Talk, "We've had some very promising early tests [with affiliate links]. Thirty-thousand dollars in a single day in commission on a Web hosting deal." In addition, the company had six advertisers spend over $1 million with Gawker last year. Gawker Media also includes tech brand Gizmodo and Deadspin... Read similar

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Pinterest Needs To Hurry Up And Monetize Before Its Competitors Get Any Bigger

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 107 days ago

At 28 million visitors a month, Pinterest's traffic is monumental, but it is taking its sweet time to explain how it plans to make money from the huge number of people who share images they find interesting on the site. Entrepreneurs like Deena Varshavskaya of Wanelo see an opportunity in that. In particular, Pinterest's upstart rivals are attacking Pinterest's weakness: It doesn't distinguish for users which items out of billions are available for purchase. The opportunity is sometimes called "discovery commerce": sites and apps that offer things you didn't realize you wanted to buy until you... Read similar

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See The Entire Hyper-Local Marketing Business Collapsed Into One Intense M&A Target Graphic

www.businessinsider.com Jim Edwards 157 days ago

There are a LOT of hyper-local marketing companies in business right now. Everyone knows Groupon and LivingSocial, of course. And Facebook and Google also have local offer businesses. But there are also tons of smaller ones, and sub-units tucked into larger businesses — like AOL's Patch and MSNBC's EveryBlock. Some of the businesses are publishers of local information (Patch, and YP, for instance). And others are hyper-local marketing businesses like Groupon or The Weather Channel. Google, of course is both. They all have one thing in common: They're in the business of helping local busi... Read similar

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This Is What It Will Take For 3D Printing To Go Mainstream

www.businessinsider.com Dylan Love 132 days ago

People who pay attention to the tech space love to wax hypothetical about how 3D printers could become a driving force in the future (myself included). Despite all the praise heaped upon these devices, they still feel very specific and narrow-purposed, with only the most devoted DIY types using them for their projects. So what will it take for desktop 3D printers to go mainstream to the point that the technophobes will want to buy them and learn to use them well? This is the question we posed to Matt Griffin, an expert in the 3D printing field at work for electronics company Adafruit. "It's al... Read similar

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With Yahoo Merger Likely Off, Rubicon CEO Frank Addante Tells Us His M&A Plans (YHOO)

www.businessinsider.com Jim Edwards 109 days ago

Rubicon Project CEO Frank Addante declined to deny today that his online ad giant was being circled by Yahoo! for possible acquisition. A Yahoo-Rubicon hookup has been a longtime, unconsummated rumor in the industry. When asked about it today, Addante would say only, "There are rumors all over the place. All I can tell you is that we have companies who are partners or customers and Yahoo happens to be both." Separately, however, a source tells us that the deal is not happening. In fact, Rubicon is behaving like a company that does not intend to be acquired. It beefed up its management today wi... Read similar

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Retail Stores Will Completely Die, Says Tech Investor Marc Andreessen

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 108 days ago

marc andreessen

traditional retail stores

business insider

physical travel

retail chains

Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape and a partner of Andreessen Horowitz, isn't afraid to speak his mind. Andreessen, who is invested in Pinterest, Foursquare and Business Insider, recently discussed the future of commerce with PandoDaily's Sarah Lacy. He told her traditional retail stores will die off, and e-commerce stores will be the only way we shop in the future. We've already seen this happen in some categories. Netflix put Blockbuster out of business, Circuit City died out, and physical travel agencies are scarce. Of course, there's one problem: e-commerce doesn't work when you nee... Read similar

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Google+ Partners With The Fancy To Bring E-Commerce To The Social Network

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 82 days ago

The Fancy, an ecommerce discovery startup that's backed by Square's Jack Dorsey, has a new partnership with Google+. Now, when users sign in to The Fancy with Google + accounts, they'll be able buy and share items on the social network. Other Google+ users can either contribute to gifts featured on The Fancy or buy an item outright from Google's site. The Google+ integration also allows users to automatically download The Fancy's app to Android devices. The app is currently available on iPhones, iPads, Androids, Android tablets, Windows mobile, and the web. The Fancy is one of the first sites ... Read similar

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HP Taps Former Top Accountant, Jim Murrin, To Head M&A (HPQ)

www.businessinsider.com Julie Bort 57 days ago

In January, HP handed 23-year HP veteran Jim Murrin a big job, Business Insider has learned from an internal email (full text below). The move was not announced publicly. (Murrin hasn't even updated his LinkedIn profile.) But HP sent us an email confirming his new job. This new role is interesting because Murrin was HP's controller, the top accountant, when HP bought Autonomy in 2011 for $11 billion, and for about six months after the Autonomy deal closed. That deal did not end well. Murrin will now lead the corporate development unit, overseeing mergers and acquisitions. Plus he was given a b... Read similar

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Zappos' Tony Hsieh Says Creating A Great Culture Is A 'Five-To-Lifetime Commitment'

www.businessinsider.com Max Nisen 65 days ago

tony hsieh

zappos

lifetime commitment

customer service company

locascio

When Rob LoCascio, CEO of online customer service company LivePerson, decided he wanted to fundamentally transform his company's culture, he went out looking for guidance. And he went to the very best, talking to "companies that I think, are not great companies, they're outstanding," he tells us. "They're a level above, and there aren't many of them. Where it all starts is by having a set of core values and a very identifiable culture." One of the companies on that short list is Zappos, which is regularly near the top of Fortune's "Best Places To Work" list. LoCascio flew out to Las... Read similar

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These Startups May Have Blown It By Turning Down $100 Million

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 16 days ago

It's common sense: If someone offers you $100 million, you accept and become fabulously rich. In Silicon Valley, common sense is replaced by an irrational desire to create an extraordinary company like Google or Facebook. For 99.99% of entrepreneurs, that mentality is profoundly stupid and the pursuit of a billion-dollar company has cost many founders life-changing fortunes. Here are four examples of companies that turned down $100 million offers, and it may have been a mistake. VIDDY: Last year, a video app called Viddy walked away from a $100 million offer, then lost all of its traction... Read similar

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Here's Why Google Wallet Hasn't Been Successful (AAPL, GOOG)

www.businessinsider.com Megan Rose Dickey 171 days ago

The mobile payments space is growing rapidly, but we still have yet to see a dominant player emerge with a solution that really works. Google has tried, American Express is trying, and so are Visa and MasterCard, among many others. At our IGNITION conference today, Intuit Vice President and General Manager of Payments Chris Hylen spoke about why there hasn't been a winner yet. "Google's agenda is to get advertising key words," Intuit Vice President and General Manager of Payments Chris Hylen said. "That's why their wallet hasn't been successful. It's not really solving a problem." H... Read similar

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WSJ Tried To Prove Twitter Wasn't Worth $10 Billion, But 'Facts Intervened'

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 80 days ago

The Wall Street Journal's Corporate News Editor, Dennis Berman, spent ten days trying to prove that Twitter was over-hyped at a $10 billion valuation. But "fact intervened," he says. Berman now believes Twitter is going to be the next Google. Twitter has only generated revenue for the past three years, mostly via sponsored tweets — paid promotional placements that get pushed to relevant users' Twitter streams. But the efforts have been fruitful; eMarketer predicts Twitter will rake in $808 million during 2014. Investors think that number will be even higher. They think Twitter could be... Read similar

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Facebook And Microsoft Are Working On A Deal, And It Could Change Everything About Advertising (MSFT, FB)

www.businessinsider.com Nicholas Carlson 163 days ago

negotiations with microsoft

Facebook and Microsoft are working on a deal that, if completed, would put Facebook one huge step closer to launching an ad network that could rival Google's in size, and change the way advertising is done online forever. According to several industry sources, Facebook is in negotiations with Microsoft to buy Atlas Solutions, the ad-serving product Microsoft acquired when it bought aQuantive for $6 billion in 2007. Our sources are outside of Facebook and Microsoft. Microsoft has been trying to sell Atlas for years, and one of our sources is close to a company that was interested in... Read similar

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Jack Dorsey Was 'Heartbroken' When Instagram Sold To Facebook

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 12 days ago

It's been a little over one year since Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. For one of Instagram's early investors, Jack Dorsey, the acquisition is still a painful memory. AllThingsD's Kara Swisher has written an in-depth article about the tug-of-war between Facebook and Twitter for Instagram in Vanity Fair. In April 2012, many investors and tech companies were interested in Instagram. VCs gave Systrom and his co-founder, Mike Krieger, $50 million at a $500 million valuation. Around the same time, Jack Dorsey and Twitter's then-CFO, Ali Rowghani, wanted to buy In... Read similar

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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Shervin Pishevar Party While Snoop Dogg And Suge Knight Reunite

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 85 days ago

shervin pishevar

long beach press telegram

menlo ventures

jack dorsey

death row records

Uber CEO Travis Kalanik and Menlo Ventures investor Shervin Pishevar witnessed the reuniting of two rap stars that have been at odds since the 90s: Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight. The group was spotted Monday night at AV Club in Los Angeles. "N d club wit Suge miss those death row days!" Snoop posted along with the photo to Instagram. Seeing Knight and Snoop together is so surprising, the Instagram photo is making the rounds on TMZ and MTV. None of the gossip rags have been able to place Kalanik or Pishevar, who is invested in Uber (kind of like they couldn't place Square's Jack Dorsey on that ya... Read similar

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Cops Are Involved After Naked Snapchat Photos Of High School Girls Show Up On Instagram

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 65 days ago

Snapchat is an app that lets you send photos that disappear moments after they're viewed. While this concept may induce people to send dirty pictures, unfortunately it is possible to take a screenshot of those pictures and preserve them forever. Some teenage girls from New Jersey's Ridgewood High School learned this the hard way. Naked photos of the girls spread like wildfire after the male recipients of those snapchats — reported to be the girls' boyfriends — posted screenshots to Instagram, according to Ridgewood Patch. Faculty caught wind of the incident on Friday and ... Read similar

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Google Reportedly Replacing Its Head Of M&A With Don Harrison, Will Open A New Late-Stage Investment Group

techcrunch.com Drew Olanoff 162 days ago

internet search company

acquisitions team

acquisitions group

google inc

mergers and acquisitions

According to Reuters, Google is making major moves in its mergers and acquisitions group, replacing David Lawee with Don Harrison, a high-ranking lawyer at the company. Here’s what Reuters shared about the move, we have reached out to Google for comment: Google Inc is replacing the head of its in-house mergers and acquisitions group with one of its top lawyers and is planning to create a new late-stage investment group that longtime and outgoing corporate development chief David Lawee will oversee, according to a source familiar with the matter. Don Harrison, a high-ranking lawyer at Goo... Read similar

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REPORT: Twitter Offered To Buy Instagram For $525 Million, Contrary To Testimony From Instagram's CEO (FB)

www.businessinsider.com Jay Yarow and Kevin Smith 153 days ago

nick bilton

california corporations

mark zuckerberg

term sheets

legal trouble

Twitter offered to buy Instagram for $525 million in cash and stock this March, Nick Bilton at the New York Times reports. This was three weeks before Mark Zuckerberg closed a deal to buy Instagram for $1 billion (at the time). Unlike most reports of an almost-deal, this one, according to Bilton, could lead to legal trouble for Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom. In August, Systrom testified to the California Corporations Department about the Facebook deal. It was a way to speed up approval of the acquisition. During the hearing Systrom was asked if he had ever received competing offers. He said, "We... Read similar

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Thanks To An Early Flaw, It's Possible To See Which Facebook Users 'Bang With Friends'

www.businessinsider.com Alyson Shontell 8 days ago

Bang With Friends (BWF) is a website and app that does exactly what its name implies. It helps you turn Facebook friends into hookup buddies, and it has gained so much early traction, it is raising ~ $1 million from investors. BWF promises no one will know you're using the service unless someone you're interested in is interested in you as well. But if you started using the service prior to January, there's a chance your BWF activity can be viewed by your Facebook friends. According to the Wall Street Journal, a link was being passed around Facebook yesterday that showed which friends are usin... Read similar

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Marissa Mayer's M&A Strategy, And The Two Companies She Is Closest To Acquiring (YHOO)

www.businessinsider.com Nicholas Carlson 178 days ago

Yahoo is deep in the process of looking at ad tech companies to acquire. We spoke with two sources familiar with the situation, and they explained to us what's going on. Here's what we learned. Yahoo's business is pretty simple. It makes money by selling ads on Web pages. This is the formula: Number Of Visits To Web Pages X Rate Yahoo Can Charge For Ads On Those Pages = Revenues That formula means there are only two ways for CEO Marissa Mayer to grow the business. Method One: She can increase the number of visits to Yahoo Web pages. The way Yahoo does that is by creating new... Read similar

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Business Insider is a new business site with deep financial, entertainment, green tech and digital industry verticals. The flagship vertical, Silicon Alley Insider, launched on July 19, 2007, led by DoubleClick founders Dwight Merriman and Kevin Ryan and former top-ranked Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget.

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