Forum Moderators: open
RECENT SEARCH ENGINE ACQUISIONS (in-complete list)
================================
JANUARY 2000
Ask Jeeves Acquires DirectHit - $500 Million.
FEBRUARY 2001
Google acquires Deja.com
OCTOBER 2001
Ask Jeeves Acquires Teoma - $4 million.
April 2002
LookSmart Acquires Wisenet - $9.25 million
FEBRUARY 2003 - Undisclosed amount.
Google Acquires Pyra Labs/Blogger.com - Undisclosed amount.
APRIL 2003 - $70 million
Overture acquires Alltheweb.com /FAST's Web search unit
APRIL 2003 -
Google Acquires Applied Semantics
APRIL 2003
OverTure acquires AltaVista - $140 million
OverTure to purchase AltaVista would be finalised by April 2003.
SEPTEMBER 2003
Google Acquires Kalix - Undisclosed amount.
Palo Alto-based Kaltix Corp., a search technology startup, has been purchased by Internet search engine company Google Inc., of Mountain View. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Kaltix Corp. was formed just three months ago and focuses on developing personalized and context-sensitive search technologies
June 18, 1998:
Disney buys 45% of Infoseek:
[wired.com...]
July 28, 1998
Altavista Buys Altavista.com for $3 Million
[cmcnyls.edu...]
October 12, 1998
Lycos Buys Wired/Hotbot:
[geek.com...]
Compaq buys Shopping.com
January 11, 1999
[internetnews.com...]
January 19, 1999
At Home buys Excite:
[wired.com...]
Altavista Sold to CMGI
June 29, 1999
[news.bbc.co.uk...]
July 12, 1999:
Disney buys rest of Infoseek:
[webtravelnews.com...]
October 25, 1999
Excite@Home Buys Blue Mountain Arts for $780 Million:
[internetnews.com...]
Feb. 09, 1999:
USA Networks Buys Lycos:
[wired.com...]
May 18, 2000
Terra Buys Lycos
[uk.gsmbox.com...]
JANUARY 2000
Ask Jeeves Buys DirectHit
[50k.mit.edu...]
30 January, 2001
Lycos buys Raging Bull:
[news.bbc.co.uk...]
Google Acquires Deja News:
February 12, 2001
[google.com...]
OCTOBER 2001
Ask Jeeves Assimilates Teoma
[siliconvalley.internet.com...]
April 2002
LookSmart Acquires Wisenet
[bizjournals.com...]
December 10, 2002
Yahoo buys Inktomi:
[forbes.com...]
February 15, 2003
Google Buys Pyra
[weblog.siliconvalley.com...]
February 18, 2003
Overture acquires AltaVista
[internetnews.com...]
APRIL 2003
Overture acquires Alltheweb.com
[webmasterworld.com...]
April 23, 2003
Google Acquires Applied Semantics
[webmasterworld.com...]
Yahoo Buys Overture:
July 14, 2003,
[webmasterworld.com...]
Sept 30, 2003:
Google Acquires Kaltix
[webmasterworld.com...]
>>Sept 30, 2003
Anything happened this month that you can think of?
More up to date than Sept 30, 2003?
Just sit down and read on back through the forums
I'm assuming that's a joke right?
There is a very serious point to this.
Am I right that the only major players in the
near future will be: (In order of how good/big they will be)
1. Microsoft
2. Yahoo
3. Google
nobody knows what will happen to the search engine market. Though its very unlikely there might come new engines...
And what kind of list do you expect? Brett gave you lots of links to merger / aquisition discussions, and to me this list seems quite up to date. If you really need more details, you should do a search and go through all the threads.
What are some major search biz dealings that we have over looked up there?
We've been seeing their crawler but it can only be blind conjecture when they'll actually have an operational search engine of their own. They're abandoning LS and have renewed with Overture.
>>2. Yahoo
Acquired several other properties, but it can only be blind conjecture at this point what's in store in the near or distant future.
>>3. Google
Still the dominant force in the search market, and it can only be blind conjecture as to whether or how much of that market share others will be able to capture in the near or distant future.
4. AskJeeves/Teoma - can't be counted out at all, they've got some fine technology, innovative ideas and some talented, dedicated people. They do reasonably well by certain well-defined niche markets, and it can only be pure conjecture when they'll start seeing the increased recognition and public appeal they rightfully deserve. To some extent we can have some influence over that happening if we give it half a try.
>>the only major players
It makes little difference to us, from our perspective as marketers, who the major players are. As long as we know how to get the most traffic with the best bang for our buck, it makes little difference where traffic is coming from beyond whatever we need to know to improve it.
The internet, the industry and the market's reached the point where we've passed out of the infant and toddler stage, moved through childhood, and are progressing through adolescence as an industry to a more mature, adult approach.
We can continue to do what we do well and refine our skills to do it even better, but we're moving onward to where once we get traffic, we can better focus on knowing what to do with that traffic more effectively. Exploring other avenues and possibilities. Broadening horizons. Conversion. Retention.
Call it being the "compleat webmaster," if you will - with an open-minded approach and a broader, more holistic view than we've had up until now.
Although their newly released search product, WebFountain, is not a public engine, I'm watching IBM very closely. They've positioned WebFountain as a corporate data-mining application for the web. For those involved in B2B marketing, this may well be a factor in the near future.
Strictly speaking, this is not an acquisition - except that IBM has made a many year long practice of buying up smaller start-ups that look promising and potentially competitive. The net effect is the release of "new" IBM products that often grow out of their acquisitions.
>anyone got a more up-to date list?More up to date than Sept 30, 2003?
Take it easy on The_Subtle_Knife, Brett's original post didn't contain all of those listings.
nobody knows what will happen to the search engine market.
Let's all just pack our bags and retire, you know
just pack it all in.
We don't know the future, we can plan anything, let's just
not bother?
Being a Technocrat Futurist this kind of talk is nonsense
to me. Just like I predicted ages ago, they won't catch Bin Linden
or Saddam Hussain, you can predict the future to a very good degree.
I also knew they would buy out Kaltix.
This is with very basic intuition, looking at the obvious facts.
Nothing is "blind conjecture".
By Looking at acquisions, you at least know who's seriously in the running.
You can see what's taking shape.
So can we vote for who we personally think will be in control
say, in a few years. I'm still thinking it's Microsoft,
once the release LongHorn, the landscape will change considerably I think.
What does everyone else think?
1. Microsoft
2. Yahoo
3. Google
4. AskJeeves/Teoma
[edited by: agerhart at 6:02 pm (utc) on Oct. 21, 2003]
[edit reason] removed unprofessional language [/edit]
I also knew they would buy out Kaltix
Please put me on your stock tip list.
