After being dormant for quite some time, it looks like Google is on a shopping spree again.
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt told Reuters that there would be acquisitions (with focus on small companies) approximately once a month mainly as a way to hire the best talent in the market.
Google also has a specialized channel called Google Venture for financing new start ups or technological innovations.
Recent acquisitions include video company, On2 and the spam filtering technology maker, reCaptcha.
However, what we are really interested to know is, which start ups will Google buy next?
To answer the question, MeetTheBoss made a very interesting “subway map” illustrating Google’s acquisitions in the past years. The Subway map consists of 12 lines representing Technology, Services, Maps, Web, Digital photo, Search, Social, Video, Advertising, News, Mobile and VOIP, giving you a holistic view on Google’s shopping behavior and investment strategy.
As we can see from the graph, Technology line (Dark purple) and Web services line (Green) are the longest with 53 companies acquired and 10 investments. The question is, will Google extend the other lines?
Hopefully, this is another positive sign that the recession is just about over.
