1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,600 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm executive producer at How 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:18,240 Speaker 1: Stuff Works in My Heart Radio and I love all 5 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,280 Speaker 1: things tech. It's time for another classic episode, y'all. This 6 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: one went out May two thousand twelve and it was 7 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: called Texts Biggest Acquisition Stories. This has been a big 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: part of a lot of Tech Stuff episodes, the idea 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: of companies acquiring other companies and how that changed the 10 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,080 Speaker 1: fate of both parties involved. In some cases, those companies 11 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: go on to do great things and in other cases 12 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:54,959 Speaker 1: things fall apart, sometimes because the acquiring company has overextended itself. 13 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 1: But this is one of the the episodes where I 14 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: talk about and Chris, my co host, also talks about 15 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: some of the biggest acquisition stories in tech history. So 16 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,200 Speaker 1: enjoy today. We're gonna talk a little bit about some 17 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: of the big tech acquisition stories that we've had in 18 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: the past. And this is prompted by a recent as 19 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast, acquisition that made the news, 20 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: you know, in in the last week. Really, I think 21 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: one of the funny things about tech acquisitions is there 22 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:29,760 Speaker 1: in a way, there's kind of two versions of tech 23 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: acquisitions to me, UM, there are things like the uh, 24 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: the acquisition that you were just talking about, the Facebook 25 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: purchase of Instagram for one billion dollars UM and this 26 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: is kind of this is a big deal for a 27 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: number of reasons. It kind of struck me as funny, 28 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: this this deal. We'll get into that just a second. 29 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: I want to finish my thought. UM. And And but 30 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: in this case, you have a situation where both companies 31 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: are well known. UM. Instagram has a lot of is 32 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: going on about it right now. Plus you know everybody 33 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: knows Facebook is UM. But then there are these other 34 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: tech acquisitions where it's something like infrastructure. You know, some 35 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 1: big company and that's a big company, but it's somebody 36 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: who makes something that people don't rush out and buy 37 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: off store shelves. UM gets acquired by somebody else who's 38 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: sort of in the same vain. And you know, this 39 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:26,079 Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that investors talk about but 40 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 1: is not common UM. And that was one of those 41 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:29,919 Speaker 1: things that kind of struck me as I started doing 42 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: research for this podcast. Is you've got the big names 43 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: and you go so and so acquired such and such. 44 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what is this gonna mean? And then 45 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: you have somebody else who goes, well, that was a 46 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: billion dollar purchase. Okay, so um yeah, but the big 47 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:47,359 Speaker 1: news the week that we're recording this is the Facebook 48 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: acquisition of Instagram for one billion dollars, a princely sum 49 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: to be sure. Um, and it's got a lot might 50 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 1: actually might actually be a kingly sum at that point, 51 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: um got got promoted. Yeah the uh and and for 52 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,919 Speaker 1: those who don't know, just so that we can get 53 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:11,200 Speaker 1: this uh all on the table. Instagram is a photo 54 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: app used to be iOS exclusive and then opened up 55 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: recently for Android. I have it on my Android phone. 56 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: I as well have it on my Android phone. And 57 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: it is both an app that allows you to take 58 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: photos and apply different filters to those photos so that 59 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: you can make a good photo suddenly look really bad 60 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: or uh that's just me making some editorial comments. Well, no, 61 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: I mean it's supposed to the idea is that you 62 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: grunge it up so it looks it appears as though 63 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: we're taken on an older camera, or maybe it's a 64 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: former paper photo that's gotten stepped on and rubbed in 65 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: the dirty. I mean it's it's done on purpose. Yeah, 66 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: it's it's it's kind of it's kind of good to 67 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 1: be bad distressed if you will, But yeah, it does. 68 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: It gives it gives things a neat little twist really. 69 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: Um and it's made a lot of iOS fans happy 70 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: that they can it can do some some very simple filters, 71 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: color filters on top of their photos that give it 72 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: an appearance as if it's been edited, uh, you know, 73 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: by someone who's fairly skilled in photo editing. But it's 74 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:18,839 Speaker 1: all you're doing is just choosing a filter. It's really 75 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: really simple, very easy interface and um uh. And it's 76 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: also not just an app lets you take photos, but 77 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: lets you share them as well. So it's got a 78 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: social aspect to it where you can follow people on 79 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: Instagram and then you can see as they upload more photos, 80 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:39,720 Speaker 1: as they take more photos using Instagram, you can see 81 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: them in a feed, so that way you can kind 82 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: of keep up with what's going on in that person's life. 83 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: And that is the key I think to this, to 84 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,480 Speaker 1: this acquisition. That's why Facebook was interested in Instagram because 85 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: Facebook is all about you know, social and photos as well, 86 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: but it's mobile interface has not been in widely regarded 87 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:07,719 Speaker 1: as being easy to use or good if we want 88 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: to if we want to really boil it down. I mean, 89 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:13,200 Speaker 1: I personally don't have any problem with the Facebook mobile interface, 90 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: but I know a lot of people who use Facebook 91 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: even more extensively than I do, which is hard for 92 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: me to imagine, but they find that it's just not 93 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: as robust as they would like. And part of that 94 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,599 Speaker 1: is the photo functions. Now, I use a lot of 95 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:32,280 Speaker 1: other apps that will allow me to automatically push a 96 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: photo to various social networks, including Twitter or Facebook, so 97 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:37,400 Speaker 1: for me it wasn't as big a deal. But for 98 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: people who don't use that or don't have that option, 99 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: Instagram gave them the ability to take a photo, put 100 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: this filter on, share it with UH, the social network, 101 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:49,840 Speaker 1: and now with Facebook's purchase, they're going to be able 102 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: to share it with Facebook itself, or maybe Facebook will 103 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: just integrate Instagram's UH functionality into its own mobile apps well. 104 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: From whatever, the whole idea is to leave Instagram sort 105 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:07,640 Speaker 1: of on its own UM, and Facebook actually has a 106 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,920 Speaker 1: reasonably good track record of doing that. I remember being 107 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,719 Speaker 1: a fan of friend feed when Facebook acquired that UH 108 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: some time ago, and they said, um, oh, well we're 109 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:21,719 Speaker 1: pretty much gonna leave it alone. We just want to 110 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 1: incorporate some of this technology into Facebook as well, and 111 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: that we wanted to get these guys for their expertise 112 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,040 Speaker 1: and add some of this functionality Facebook and a lot 113 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: of people on friend feed were going out, well, this 114 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: is the end. This is the end. And really they 115 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: didn't mess with it um as much. But uh, but 116 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,680 Speaker 1: it is kind of funny because different companies have different 117 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: takes on it. Um. Jonathan and I first started talking 118 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: about this podcast is being our take on Instagram, but 119 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: I think it's kind of been um done in pretty 120 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: much every tech channel. Why they were doing it and 121 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,159 Speaker 1: on all these things and what happens if you don't 122 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: like it. There are a lot of Facebook uh, people 123 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 1: who don't like Facebook taking over Instagram because they um, 124 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:07,840 Speaker 1: you know, they just said, well, they're going to ruin it, 125 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: kind of like they didn't like the Facebook Spotify partnership. Yeah, yeah, um. 126 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,320 Speaker 1: And there have been lots of well, if you don't 127 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: want to use Instagram anymore, here are some alternatives. I 128 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: installed a couple of them, like stream Zoo and pixeler 129 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: oh Matic and some of those, and they sort of 130 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: do the same kinds of things. There are all sorts 131 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 1: of alternatives if you don't want to use Instagram anymore. 132 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: But you know, I think I felt like this would 133 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: be an opportunity to talk about some of these these 134 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: acquisitions in the past, because, um, they've all taken different 135 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: kinds of turns. Um. Some have been very hands off, 136 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 1: some have been very hands on, some have succeeded, some 137 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: have flopped miserably. Um, So we wanted to talk about 138 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: some of the big ones. Yeah, and uh, and we've 139 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,080 Speaker 1: got a whole bunch here. I wanna I want to 140 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:55,280 Speaker 1: credit someone before we get too far into this, because 141 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: a lot of the pretty much all the information I 142 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: pulled I pulled from a spreadsheet that a Wired writer 143 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:06,840 Speaker 1: named Andy Bayou created. He he created this amazing spreadsheet 144 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,600 Speaker 1: where he he just sort of uh trolled the Internet, 145 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,080 Speaker 1: not the negative you stink kind of way, but rather 146 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: the grabbing right getting all the information you can for 147 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: info about various big tech acquisitions. And these are the 148 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: ones that are really the kind that that get the 149 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: notice of users because it's the recognizable brand names. But 150 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:33,720 Speaker 1: he pulled them all together, and he went so far 151 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: as to even compare how much the reported acquisition amount 152 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:43,560 Speaker 1: was versus how many users the service that was acquired, 153 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 1: how many users it had. Uh, he broke down what 154 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: the cost per user was based on that information, and 155 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 1: even how many employees the service had, and what the 156 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,000 Speaker 1: cost per employee was, because when you think about it, 157 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: these acquisitions, some of them like Instagram, that's a billion dollars. 158 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: Instagram did not have a lot of employees. Uh, that 159 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: thirteen employees according according to Andy's research, So thirteen employees 160 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:16,079 Speaker 1: and a billion bucks. He estimated that that was about 161 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: seventies seven million dollars per employee. Now that doesn't mean 162 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: that each employee of Instagram is is taking home a 163 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: cool seventy seven million, because the CEO and the head 164 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:32,080 Speaker 1: of Instagram are taking down about half a billion dollars together. 165 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: So that's so about of that purchase price went to 166 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: the guys in charge of Instagram. But still you're thinking, 167 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 1: that's like winning the lottery. You know, you're working and 168 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: you're working for this, You're working in a small type 169 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: group and you get acquired for a massive amount of money. 170 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:51,560 Speaker 1: That's kind of like that was the dream of the 171 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: whole dot com bust too. There are a lot of 172 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: companies that were starting up that we're trying to be 173 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: really small and nimble and get acquired by bigger companies. 174 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: Some of the some of the stories we have, some 175 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: of the um the acquisitions we can talk about happened 176 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: before the dot com crash, including a couple from Yahoo 177 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,480 Speaker 1: that I wanted to talk about. So back in ninete, 178 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: Yahoo made two really big acquisitions. The first was in 179 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:24,679 Speaker 1: January of n when Yahoo purchased geo Cities. Yeah. Now, 180 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,600 Speaker 1: geo Cities was sort of a place where you could 181 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: build your own web page and it was laid out 182 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: like a city, like they had neighborhoods and everything, and 183 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: and it was kind of a uh it was kind 184 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,400 Speaker 1: of like the place where people would build a website 185 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: before there were really social networks. Yeah yeah, Now, UM, 186 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: maybe some of you don't remember necessarily what what the 187 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 1: world Wide Web was, like, I was gonna say the Internet, 188 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:55,079 Speaker 1: but let's go stick with the Worldwide Web. Um. Back 189 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 1: in in the mid to late nineties, Um, people didn't 190 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 1: necessarily uh intend to go I mean, and the Internet 191 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:06,720 Speaker 1: was still sort of a new concept for people and 192 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:09,080 Speaker 1: they wanted to know what can you do with this? 193 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: I mean, email is a fairly reasonably easy concept to understand, um, 194 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:17,880 Speaker 1: and you know there were others. There were more difficult 195 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:22,760 Speaker 1: things like us net for example, um, and then databases 196 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,240 Speaker 1: that weren't the most intuitive. Yeah, as far as user 197 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 1: interfaces are concerned. So, I mean, at the time, geo 198 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: Cities was kind of a neat deal because it allowed 199 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:38,319 Speaker 1: people to create their own websites without having to learn 200 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: how to code HTML. And there weren't a lot of tools, um, 201 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:44,840 Speaker 1: you know, things like a WordPress dot com or blogger 202 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: or you know the journaling sites, which is I think 203 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,440 Speaker 1: sort of what a lot of geo Cities pages were like. 204 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: Or even Whizzywig editors. Yeah, exactly as drain Weaver or 205 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,480 Speaker 1: before that go live, so even even page mails stuff 206 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 1: like that and Whizzywig. Just in case you don't know, 207 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,480 Speaker 1: is what you see is what you get where the 208 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: edit that you're making on the screen, what you're looking 209 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: at on the screen and your edit mode is you 210 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,440 Speaker 1: can be reasonably confident that's what's going to show up 211 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: if you were to navigate there through a browser like 212 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: in the old days, we had to do everything by code. Yeah, 213 00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:19,960 Speaker 1: well I should clarify too, because I was using some 214 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:23,160 Speaker 1: whizzy wig editors back in the late nineties. But they 215 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:26,359 Speaker 1: for the most part, they were they came in two flavors, 216 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:31,839 Speaker 1: um fairly trustworthy, but very expensive, uh like like like 217 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:35,000 Speaker 1: a couple of hundreds of dollars or you could you 218 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: could buy them. There were a couple of them that were, 219 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: you know, in the forty to fifty dollar range. But 220 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,240 Speaker 1: they inserted junk code and the pages would break depending 221 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: on what browser you were using or sometimes not depending 222 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: on what browser you're using. Um, and they were just 223 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 1: and you'd have to do this and upload it to 224 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 1: a server. Not everyone is comfortable with FTP and knowing 225 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: how to do this, and geo City is was sort 226 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: of a pioneer in this space. You know, hey, throw 227 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: this content up there and make new friends in your neighborhood. Okay, 228 00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 1: So the acquisition went for reported about three point five 229 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,959 Speaker 1: seven billion dollars. Three point five seven billion dollars people, 230 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: that's that's three point five seven times more than the 231 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:19,720 Speaker 1: Instagram acquisition. And those were in you know, that was 232 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: about fifteen years rounding off, and that was that was significant. 233 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,480 Speaker 1: So here's the problem is that Geo Cities that was 234 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: probably right at the peak of Geo City's popularity. Uh. 235 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:34,720 Speaker 1: And then before too much longer, there was a shift 236 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 1: in the way people use the web because before the 237 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,680 Speaker 1: dot com crash, a lot of the websites on the 238 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: web were very static. So you would build a web 239 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,559 Speaker 1: page and it would pretty much stay that way for 240 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:49,000 Speaker 1: months at a time. You wouldn't necessarily add new material 241 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: because it was kind of a pain to do it, 242 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:52,840 Speaker 1: and really most people weren't thinking of the web in 243 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:54,320 Speaker 1: that sense. They were thinking of the web kind of 244 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:56,520 Speaker 1: like a book. You would go you would read a 245 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: web page, and just like if you were to read 246 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,080 Speaker 1: a book, you wouldn't go back necessarily unless you just 247 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 1: truly enjoyed the web page. But there wouldn't be any 248 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,160 Speaker 1: new material there because it wasn't dynamic. But that began 249 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: to change right around the same time that Yahoo made 250 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:15,040 Speaker 1: this purchase. And of course today geo Cities no longer exists. 251 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: So that's a three point five seven billion dollar purchase 252 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: that eventually fizzled out. Now, it stayed around for a while, 253 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:23,520 Speaker 1: it's not like it it's not like it died immediately 254 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:26,280 Speaker 1: after y'all who purchased it, and y'ah who got more 255 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: community oriented as a result of it. Yeah, I wouldn't 256 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: say that that it was a complete failure on Yahoo's 257 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: part in as much as um the idea really of 258 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: geo cd s really did propel things forward in the 259 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:44,880 Speaker 1: social space. UM. But yeah, in a way you go, Okay, 260 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: well they spend a lot of money and then the 261 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: service shutdown in that in that regard, you know, strictly 262 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,280 Speaker 1: on that place. Then, yeah, I know that whenever you 263 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 1: look at Yeah Who as an analyst today, because y'ah 264 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: who is a company that has has been struggling over 265 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 1: the last couple of years, um, and you start looking 266 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: back on deals like this, it's very easy to point fingers. 267 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,040 Speaker 1: But it's even easier to point a finger at Yeah Whose. 268 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: Other purchase in Broadcast dot Com, which was an internet 269 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 1: radio company. Broadcast dot Com was so back in the nineties. Uh, 270 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 1: there were there were a couple of people who were 271 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,160 Speaker 1: thinking about the possibility of broadcasting radio over the Internet, 272 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 1: and you know, started looking into what they would need 273 00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 1: to do in order to do that, and eventually this 274 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: company began m the company that would become Broadcast dot Com, 275 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: and UH had a fellow eventually leading it named Mark Cuban. 276 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: I feel like I've heard that name somewhere. Yeah, you 277 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,040 Speaker 1: might have anyway, Cuban he uh he was leading broadcast 278 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:47,800 Speaker 1: dot com and yah who approached to purchase the company 279 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: for a amazing five point seven billion dollars. And when 280 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: I say amazing, there are a couple of reasons for that. 281 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: First of all, that's that's a whole lot of money. 282 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: But second of all, the theme but he had about 283 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: according to Andy over at, Wired had about five and 284 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:10,280 Speaker 1: twenty thousand active users, so just over half a million 285 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,560 Speaker 1: active users five point seven billion dollars to essentially acquire 286 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 1: those half million users. Keeping in mind that, you know, 287 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: the idea was that these services would be rolled out 288 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: into other parts of Yahoo and become a bigger role. 289 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: But um but still, if you were to break that 290 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,600 Speaker 1: down as Andy did, I like to call him Andy Uh, 291 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,520 Speaker 1: as Andy did for for the purposes of his article, 292 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 1: he determined that that means that they spent almost eleven 293 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:40,880 Speaker 1: thousand dollars per user buying that that company. And um 294 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 1: uh so that's you know, that's just it's crazy how 295 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: how much money that is. I mean, it's for per user, 296 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: Like you could have walked out to each person and said, 297 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 1: if I give you ten grand, will you come to 298 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: my side every day? The person yes, And that might 299 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,440 Speaker 1: have been more effective. But as the broadcast dot com features, 300 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:04,879 Speaker 1: they did get rolled out into some other Yahoo features. 301 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: But most of that stuff no longer exists either, not 302 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,200 Speaker 1: as not as it did then. No, it got incorporated 303 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 1: into other things. It's it's essentially lost now, like it's 304 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: it's so buried in other other products that you can't 305 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:23,080 Speaker 1: even recognize it anymore. And I think the Yahoo Broadcast 306 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 1: acquisition by many is regarded as the biggest mistake and 307 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: acquisitions ever, and that's up against some pretty stiff competition. Well, 308 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,720 Speaker 1: it did give the Dallas Mavericks another shot since Mark 309 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:41,280 Speaker 1: Cuban bought them, and it's spent a lot of money 310 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:44,000 Speaker 1: on them. It's gotten quite good. But yeah, five point 311 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,800 Speaker 1: seven billion dollars for that company. And uh, I should 312 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: add that there's something else we need to talk about, 313 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 1: just very very briefly. I'm just I just want to 314 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,119 Speaker 1: address some people may be thinking, Hey, what about a 315 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:57,280 Speaker 1: Well and Time Warner that was that was that was 316 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,359 Speaker 1: often talked about the worst deal in heck ever, But 317 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 1: we should point out that was a merger that was 318 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:06,320 Speaker 1: not an acquisition. It was a merger, and it was 319 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:08,880 Speaker 1: a it was sort of a tech non tech thing 320 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: because you know, it merged, if you will, the digital 321 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 1: world with the um old media world l d E 322 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: or media um uh. But you know, if you if 323 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: you think about it, though, they were yeah who was 324 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: at least thinking ahead, uh, the idea of streaming media, 325 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: the idea of social websites. They were able to identify 326 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: these things, but they were you know, pre dot com 327 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:43,440 Speaker 1: bubble bursting uh situations too because this was the late 328 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 1: you know, nineties, which was right before the bubble burst. 329 00:18:46,359 --> 00:18:48,919 Speaker 1: It's definitely frustrating in a way because you look at 330 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 1: what yeah, who was doing, and you think they were 331 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: moving in the right direction. It was just it was 332 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: just slightly the wrong. It was bye bye by the 333 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,080 Speaker 1: end the number of like a year and a half. 334 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: If it had been a year and a half later 335 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: after the dot com bubble had burst, and y'all who 336 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:05,560 Speaker 1: assuming that, Yeah who had been able to weather the 337 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:07,960 Speaker 1: dot com bubble well enough? And I mean the company 338 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,919 Speaker 1: is still around today. So even after making these massive deals, um, 339 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 1: they might not have had to spend as much and 340 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: they might have might have been able to invest in 341 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:21,199 Speaker 1: similar products that would have been more attuned to the 342 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: and I hate to use this buzzword web two point 343 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,920 Speaker 1: oh approach to the way the web works. Well, should 344 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: we stick with ya who? Then? Sure we can talk 345 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: a little bit more. Yeah. They they've made some other 346 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,320 Speaker 1: purchases that actually did quite well for them, or at 347 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: least are still very popular, like Flicker. Yes, that's you know, 348 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:43,719 Speaker 1: the photo sharing and photo album uh database site, and 349 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,480 Speaker 1: Flicker I think is one of the more popular ones 350 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: that's out there. Um, although I did read in UH 351 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,159 Speaker 1: in my research that some people have been upset that 352 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: Yahoo didn't really do anything with Flicker, like they were 353 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: expecting them to take it the next step and Flick 354 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:03,560 Speaker 1: or sort of stayed the same as it really innovated much. 355 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,320 Speaker 1: That's true, it hasn't changed much and launch, and as 356 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,680 Speaker 1: other social networks like Facebook and Google Plus have become 357 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,240 Speaker 1: more popular and even Twitter, a lot of that photos 358 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:17,679 Speaker 1: sharing and photo storage stuff has been offloaded onto those 359 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: so sites like Flicker and also Google's Picasa, which never 360 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,159 Speaker 1: I don't think it was ever anywhere near as popular 361 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:29,560 Speaker 1: as Flicker was. Um, but Google's Picasa also have have 362 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:32,600 Speaker 1: sort of taken ahead I guess Google Picasa less so, 363 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 1: because that is what Google Plus uses as its foundation 364 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 1: for UM for photos photo Bucket one of the two. Yeah. Well, 365 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: as a contrast, we're talking when Yahoo was spending billions 366 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: of dollars for these acquisitions in two thousand five, and 367 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:51,200 Speaker 1: I would argue that Flicker in a way, it's probably 368 00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,720 Speaker 1: way more popular than either of those two products, where 369 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,119 Speaker 1: that they acquired for multibillions of dollars. Um Flicker was 370 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:03,040 Speaker 1: acquired for thirty million. But that's a big change, much 371 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:07,199 Speaker 1: more modest acquisition compared to the billions of dollars they 372 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 1: spent just a few years earlier. And I think, yeah, 373 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: I think that was much more wisely spent in that case. 374 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: And the the acquisition the same year of Delicious for 375 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,280 Speaker 1: thirty million dollars, to which I think was done again 376 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:25,080 Speaker 1: with the best of intentions. Link sharing sites are still popular. 377 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,399 Speaker 1: I think they were in ways for runners to Twitter 378 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,760 Speaker 1: because it was supposed to be social link sharing sites. 379 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: But I use mind more for Hey, I wanna save 380 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: this because I'm gonna look at it later. Let me 381 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:39,639 Speaker 1: save this, and I don't really want to share it 382 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:41,480 Speaker 1: with anybody because it's you know, I just want to 383 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,479 Speaker 1: remember to read it. Yeah, there are a couple of 384 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:46,919 Speaker 1: these links sharing sites that are on these acquisitions at 385 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 1: what we can talk about and and and a lot 386 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: of them have kind of faded away. There's still there's 387 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: still I think Reddit is really the only one that 388 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 1: I habitually go to now I don't. I don't tend 389 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 1: to use dig anymore. Yeah, and I don't don't really 390 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,640 Speaker 1: use stumble Upon, and I don't really use Delicious so well. 391 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,640 Speaker 1: Delicious was one of the early sites like this, and 392 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,720 Speaker 1: I think Yahoo had intended to make something big out 393 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,359 Speaker 1: of it, but they ended up, uh planning on shutting 394 00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,960 Speaker 1: it down until people complained about that so much that 395 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: they found someone to uh to let it go to um. 396 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: So another one of those things that just sort of, 397 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: you know, passed right on through. Chris and I have 398 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,680 Speaker 1: more to say about tech's biggest acquisition stories, but first 399 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:44,160 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. How 400 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: about we talked about eBay, because eBay's also made some 401 00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: pretty big acquisitions in the past. One of them was 402 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,399 Speaker 1: in two thousand two and eBay bought PayPal. Yeah, that 403 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: was the most synergistic of all of these. If you'll 404 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: pardon the corpse speak. Yeah, it's the one that fit 405 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: the best into what eBay does. I mean PayPal. Obviously, 406 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,199 Speaker 1: if you want to have a service that allows you 407 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: to set up an account to purchase things online, and 408 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 1: you have a site that is all about selling things online, 409 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: then there is clearly some uh some complementary overlap going 410 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,480 Speaker 1: on there. And uh so eBay bought PayPal for about 411 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:26,800 Speaker 1: one point three billion dollars um and uh it sounds 412 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,000 Speaker 1: like a lot of of money. I mean, there's a 413 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:32,600 Speaker 1: lot of money. But there were over fifteen million users 414 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:37,200 Speaker 1: of of PayPal, so there was already a big established 415 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,240 Speaker 1: user base. There is much different from broadcast dot com 416 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,159 Speaker 1: where I only had the half million, so that that 417 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,959 Speaker 1: purchase actually seemed like it was a pretty good idea, 418 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: you know, and are there are plenty of people who 419 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,159 Speaker 1: still use PayPal now. Granted, PayPal over the last couple 420 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: of years has had a couple of controversial news stories 421 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:02,919 Speaker 1: pop up, generally about there's been some about PayPal offering money, 422 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: not offering money, but PayPal uh administering over payments to 423 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:14,880 Speaker 1: illegal sites or sites that are selling uh what pirated 424 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,480 Speaker 1: stuff or um uh that kind of thing. And then 425 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:23,879 Speaker 1: there's also uh some other arguments about PayPal requiring people 426 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:28,919 Speaker 1: to go through some pretty crazy steps in order to 427 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:34,159 Speaker 1: get money back. Like you've heard the story about the violin, right, So, 428 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:38,440 Speaker 1: a guy purchased a violin, purchases an antique violin, and 429 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: uh it is truly an antique violin for a couple 430 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,080 Speaker 1: of thousand dollars, as I recall, and then is for 431 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,240 Speaker 1: some reason or another unsatisfied with the purchase and wants 432 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: the money back. But PayPal says that in order to 433 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,159 Speaker 1: get the money back, they have to have proof that 434 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:57,360 Speaker 1: he destroyed the violin. He has to actually break it, 435 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,399 Speaker 1: because PayPal doesn't want to refund money and then have 436 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: the guy just keep the violin anyway, And then he 437 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,040 Speaker 1: has the violin and the money. So the guy goes 438 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: and takes pictures of the destroyed antique violin. So something 439 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,479 Speaker 1: that a lot of people would argue has a lot 440 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: of intrinsic value in it and should not have been 441 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 1: destroyed was destroyed because of this this procedure, this whole 442 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,960 Speaker 1: this policy that PayPal had, and uh so that's an 443 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,360 Speaker 1: example of some of the bad press PayPal has had 444 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:31,000 Speaker 1: in the past couple of years. But still it's again 445 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:37,320 Speaker 1: a very popular way of of processing transactions on online now. 446 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,880 Speaker 1: eBay also made some other acquisitions over the last few years, 447 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,399 Speaker 1: and two thousand five, eBay purchased Skype, the voipe client 448 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:51,080 Speaker 1: voice over Internet procol client for two point six billion dollars. 449 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,920 Speaker 1: And this was one that had people scratching their heads. Yeah, 450 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,760 Speaker 1: because the question was why would an online auction site 451 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,760 Speaker 1: purchase a void company? And there were there were some 452 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:07,399 Speaker 1: talk of possibly incorporating it into the auction uh uh. 453 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,359 Speaker 1: The auction features itself so that potential buyers could speak 454 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,880 Speaker 1: with sellers while they were considering bidding on on objects, 455 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:22,840 Speaker 1: but that never really happened. And um also, eBay eventually 456 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,000 Speaker 1: started to move a little further away from the whole 457 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 1: auction model and move more towards almost like an online 458 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: retail center, so more like Amazon than it used to be. 459 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:35,679 Speaker 1: I mean, they still do the auctions as well, but 460 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:41,440 Speaker 1: that's not necessarily their primary focus anymore. So Skype uh 461 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: seemed like it might have been a good idea to 462 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,920 Speaker 1: eBay early on, but I think a lot of people 463 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,760 Speaker 1: now think of the eBay purchase of Skype as one 464 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:53,960 Speaker 1: of the big mistakes in tech acquisitions and eventually eBay 465 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,439 Speaker 1: sold Skype off. Now, first they just sold off the 466 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,520 Speaker 1: controlling interest to a up of investors, and then eventually 467 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: divested themselves of pretty much all of their interest in 468 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: Skype to a little company that you might have heard of. 469 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:14,080 Speaker 1: It started off in a garage. It's called um Oh 470 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:19,440 Speaker 1: they like Conkiston wores Microsoft. That's it alright. So yeah, 471 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,880 Speaker 1: just just to provide some context, Um, when eBay acquired 472 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,960 Speaker 1: Skype in two thousand five, it's spent two point six 473 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: billion dollars. But when when um, Microsoft bought it in, 474 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:38,320 Speaker 1: Skypes value had increased. Microsoft was willing to pay eight 475 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,399 Speaker 1: point five billion dollars. That's a eBay did well with 476 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,560 Speaker 1: that auction, Yes it did, I think. I think actually 477 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,399 Speaker 1: Microsoft sniped the that that at the very last second. 478 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,240 Speaker 1: Yes they are. I would say eBay as a power seller, 479 00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: we gotta think about it. I mean, Skype is a 480 00:27:55,160 --> 00:28:00,280 Speaker 1: very popular voice over Internet Protocol UH service, right, and 481 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: and that's a very valuable asset to have, and Microsoft 482 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 1: had to be worried about other companies possibly jumping in there. 483 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:09,800 Speaker 1: I can think of two right at the top of 484 00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:11,880 Speaker 1: my head that would have been very interested in Skype, 485 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: Facebook is one and Google is the other. Yeah, yeah, 486 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:21,560 Speaker 1: definitely so um and possibly somebody else named after a fruit. 487 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,560 Speaker 1: Um commodore is not named. Uh. There was one other 488 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: acquisition the eb eBay made, and this kind of ties 489 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: into what we were talking about with Delicious and Yahoo earlier, 490 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,440 Speaker 1: which was stumble Upon, another discovery site, and they bought 491 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,040 Speaker 1: it for a seventy five million dollars and um, yeah, 492 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 1: that's another one that kind of I mean it still exists. Yeah, 493 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,200 Speaker 1: they haven't. I don't. I wouldn't say they've necessarily mismanaged 494 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 1: it or anything, but it hasn't. It's sort of neither 495 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: taken off nor bombed. It's just sort of still there. Yeah. 496 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,240 Speaker 1: You know, there's sometimes where you you encounter multi bole 497 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: companies trying to compete in the same space, and you 498 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,959 Speaker 1: might have one or two front runners and then everyone 499 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:07,959 Speaker 1: else is just kind of there. And this is one 500 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: of those cases. So where where we want to go 501 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,120 Speaker 1: from here? Well, you know, it's funny because uh, as 502 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: we've been talking, you know, we had quite a list 503 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,880 Speaker 1: of these um, some that I collected and some that 504 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 1: you collected, and um, these are all kind of juicy, 505 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,479 Speaker 1: So we can you know talk about should we talk 506 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:36,000 Speaker 1: about the pound gorilla? Sure? Um being Google? Yes? Um, 507 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: I was like, yes, Google has a pretty good track 508 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,479 Speaker 1: record of h well there there's some companies that are 509 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: more acquisitive than others. Let's say that acquisitive acquisitive. Um yeah, 510 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,720 Speaker 1: I got to use that degree in English for something. Um. Yeah. 511 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: So uh you know they've they've they pick up more 512 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 1: than I would say just about any other tech company. 513 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: Um and uh you know they're there. They tend to 514 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: be more uh, let's say, flamboyant purchases, like, for example, 515 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: Blogger back in two thousand three, which they picked up 516 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: for twenty million dollars um. This was that was a 517 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,400 Speaker 1: good time. This was an example of a good purchase 518 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: at a good time, because that was right as the 519 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,240 Speaker 1: blog thing began to take off among I would say 520 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 1: the masses, yes, when it became kind of a phenomenon. 521 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: Do do do do Do Do do do? I would have if 522 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,640 Speaker 1: he hadn't Um and you know they added they continue 523 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: to add other Google is good at picking out services 524 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: that complement existing services and and and companies they think 525 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: that will fit well within their portfolio, like Picasa um 526 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: in two thousand four, which they acquired for five million. Um. 527 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,719 Speaker 1: You know, Dodgeball in two thousand five was also on 528 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: Mr Bao's list. I don't know him well enough to 529 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: call him Andy. So yeah, Dodgeball done five million. Dodgeball 530 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: and another service, Jaike, which they purchased in two thousand 531 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,320 Speaker 1: seven for twelve million. These are these are good ones 532 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,640 Speaker 1: to point out because these are failures really for Google. 533 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: I I don't know that if I don't know how 534 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,800 Speaker 1: Google portrays them, right, but I know that you know, 535 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,480 Speaker 1: from the outside they look like failures because you've got Dodgeball, 536 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:23,880 Speaker 1: which sharing It was a location sharing application company, and 537 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,520 Speaker 1: in fact, the people who were behind Dodgeball eventually left 538 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: Google and found it a different company called four Square. 539 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 1: Wait don't you play that with it? No, it's different 540 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,959 Speaker 1: kind of four Square, not the game but the the 541 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,640 Speaker 1: check in service. So Dodgeball never really went anywhere, and 542 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,920 Speaker 1: in fact that the people behind Dodgeball were very frustrated 543 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: by this, which is why they went on eventually to 544 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:51,000 Speaker 1: to found four Square, because that was probably something closer 545 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 1: to what they had imagined when they started Dodgeball than 546 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:57,440 Speaker 1: what it turned out to be. Jaiku is a short 547 00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: messaging service kind of sharing uh, model sort of like, oh, 548 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:07,800 Speaker 1: there's another company that does this. Um, oh, that's right, Twitter. Yeah, 549 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: so Jaiku was Google's well, Jaiku was Jaiku's answer to Twitter. 550 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:16,080 Speaker 1: But Google purchased Jaiku and then or Haiku if you prefer. 551 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:21,000 Speaker 1: But that never really went anywhere either. It had it 552 00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:25,040 Speaker 1: had its you know, dedicated users who loved it, but 553 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,400 Speaker 1: it never really grew like Twitter did. Twitter exploded and 554 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: Jaiku sat there and so that, um, Jaiku's no more. Right, Yeah, 555 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,840 Speaker 1: I went the other day actually before we discussed this, 556 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,880 Speaker 1: and it's it is gone. Hey guys, it's Jonathan from 557 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,440 Speaker 1: the future, and I just want to tell you. Sorry, 558 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:44,960 Speaker 1: I I'll have to tell you later. I'm getting acquired. 559 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:55,680 Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break. Perhaps the most famous acquisition 560 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 1: Google has made, besides a Motorola mobility, which we're not 561 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:04,040 Speaker 1: really covering in this, uh, is YouTube two thousand, six 562 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,800 Speaker 1: one point six five billion dollars. Yeah, and that's a 563 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:13,280 Speaker 1: that's a lot of clams. But then YouTube had YouTube 564 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: had a lot of users, like over over thirty four 565 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: million active users when at the time of the purchase, 566 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: and it was you know, Google was looking ahead saying 567 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: in a way YouTube is also kind of a search engine. 568 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,240 Speaker 1: Yes it is. People go onto YouTube and they they 569 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,560 Speaker 1: will they might you know, browse around, but often you 570 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,160 Speaker 1: go in and you PLoP your cursor in the search 571 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:36,880 Speaker 1: bar and you type in some stuff and you hope 572 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:38,840 Speaker 1: that the videos that come up and pertain to what 573 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,760 Speaker 1: you're were typing in. And so, um it made sense 574 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,280 Speaker 1: in that in that respect. And uh, in fact, eventually, 575 00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: you know, Google had its own Google Video service for 576 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: a while, and then they eventually got rid of that, 577 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 1: and so YouTube is just the whole Google Video thing now. 578 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:01,080 Speaker 1: But it's uh, that event's one that was very controversial 579 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,560 Speaker 1: for a while because while the one point six five 580 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,360 Speaker 1: billion dollars wasn't the largest amount of money spent on 581 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: a tech company, and it wasn't that they didn't have 582 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,120 Speaker 1: a lot of users, there was another problem, which was 583 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,160 Speaker 1: just that YouTube really wasn't making a whole lot of money. 584 00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 1: Like it's hard to make money when you're dealing with 585 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:23,160 Speaker 1: a service that's that's that big. Well, YouTube has another 586 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: thing that's uh playing against it and making money, which 587 00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: is um that it requires I was gonna say boatloads, 588 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,840 Speaker 1: let's go with maybe shiploads of bandwidth and and not 589 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,000 Speaker 1: only that, but servers. Yeah, a lot of a lot 590 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: of physical machines are required to keep YouTube going. And 591 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,879 Speaker 1: video video is resource intensive, um and takes it uses 592 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,480 Speaker 1: a lot of data, and especially now that they've got 593 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,040 Speaker 1: h D High definition video takes up even more space. 594 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,719 Speaker 1: So you've got lots of hardware using lots of electricity 595 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:57,960 Speaker 1: and lots of bandwidth. And somebody's got to pay for 596 00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,440 Speaker 1: that if you're going to keep this stuff up, and 597 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,600 Speaker 1: if you if the users aren't paying for it, then 598 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 1: the company is. And uh you know, I I a 599 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,239 Speaker 1: startup may not have been able to handle paying for 600 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,319 Speaker 1: it at the way that YouTube has grown, but Google can, 601 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,839 Speaker 1: and they can sell ads alongside it. Yeah, and they do, 602 00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,600 Speaker 1: and yeah, it's it's you know, we talked about in 603 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,360 Speaker 1: our YouTube podcast, we talked about how uh these the 604 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: company ends up seeing something like forty eight hours of 605 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 1: material uploaded every minute on YouTube. It's probably even more 606 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 1: than that by now. Uh So when you're talking about 607 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,360 Speaker 1: that level of of uploads and you know that quantity 608 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: that's coming in, you need to have a nice, big 609 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,600 Speaker 1: company behind you to make sure that there's a a foundation, 610 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: a solid foundation there, and uh, you know, YouTube is 611 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: definitely one of those things that have has just become 612 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,560 Speaker 1: increasingly popular over the years. So you could say that 613 00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:56,840 Speaker 1: it's a great acquisition in the sense that if it 614 00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 1: were to go away, that would be bad. But uh, 615 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: it's probably still one of the ones that that vexus 616 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:08,080 Speaker 1: Google the most in that balancing the revenue issues versus 617 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,919 Speaker 1: the maintenance and overhead issues. Plus they're all the lawsuits 618 00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,600 Speaker 1: that are related to YouTube that have to do with 619 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,239 Speaker 1: intellectual property theft, where you've got all these companies that 620 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:25,320 Speaker 1: are accusing Google and YouTube of harboring pirates and allowing 621 00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 1: people to upload pirate ID or or at least uh 622 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: unlicensed copies of content to YouTube. And uh so we've 623 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,400 Speaker 1: been seeing a lot of that in the news recently too, 624 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: about the the stories about the court cases involving whether 625 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:47,160 Speaker 1: or not YouTube knowingly harbored material that violated intellectual property rights, 626 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,600 Speaker 1: or if if the company was acting in the best 627 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:55,080 Speaker 1: interests of both its users and intellectual property rights owners 628 00:36:55,560 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: by requiring people to take down videos or taking down 629 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,879 Speaker 1: the videos for them that violated those policies. There's it's 630 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,360 Speaker 1: a big mess right now. Yeah, yeah, okay, So I 631 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:09,960 Speaker 1: wanted to talk about the the uh some of the 632 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,960 Speaker 1: acquisitions that we don't necessarily think about as being exciting. 633 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,600 Speaker 1: One of those is, uh, what happened just last year 634 00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 1: when we're recording this, Uh, Texas Instruments bought National Semiconductor. 635 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:25,360 Speaker 1: That fails to excite me. Yeah, exactly. This is not 636 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,319 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that, um, you know, if if 637 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,720 Speaker 1: Apple bought Facebook. I mean, I'm just saying, like, two 638 00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,360 Speaker 1: big names that lots of people are interested in. People 639 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:37,880 Speaker 1: love and hate both of these companies, Texas Instruments and 640 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,319 Speaker 1: National Semiconductor. That's that's big news. That's a big deal. 641 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,160 Speaker 1: Six point five billion dollars. That's a lot of money. 642 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: But it doesn't make the same kinds of headlines as 643 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,880 Speaker 1: Too Popular. Uh, you know, companies that make the news 644 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,560 Speaker 1: every day and people will spend money on, and it 645 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:57,800 Speaker 1: lacks that emotional investment that comes from these other deals 646 00:37:57,800 --> 00:37:59,799 Speaker 1: that are not as big when you look at it 647 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,200 Speaker 1: from monetary standpoint, but they seem to be bigger because 648 00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:06,960 Speaker 1: they are impacting stuff that we interact with on a 649 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,120 Speaker 1: daily basis. Yeah. Then there was two thousand nine when 650 00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:15,279 Speaker 1: Oracle bought Sun Microsystems seven point four billion. Um. That 651 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,560 Speaker 1: was that was huge news for anyone who knew what 652 00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:21,200 Speaker 1: was going on. Yeah, like there were engineers who were 653 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:26,239 Speaker 1: freaking out. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Well, Uh that that calls 654 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:30,400 Speaker 1: into question a lot of other stuff too. Um. Larry Ellison, 655 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,960 Speaker 1: head of Oracle, is another one of those. He's a character. 656 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:36,919 Speaker 1: That's a really nice way to put it. We're gonna 657 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:38,960 Speaker 1: have to do an episode on Larry Ellison, and I 658 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,440 Speaker 1: think half of it will be bleeped out and those 659 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: will just be the quotes. Yeah, exactly. Um, he's yeah, 660 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,040 Speaker 1: he's he's definitely a character. And a lot of people 661 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:52,360 Speaker 1: who are fans of Sun, the traditional Sun Microsystems company, 662 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,840 Speaker 1: we're very upset that Oracle was was buying them for 663 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:57,319 Speaker 1: a number of reasons. But there was a lot of 664 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:01,720 Speaker 1: technology behind that too, some of it open source um 665 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: that they were really afraid that Oracle was going to 666 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,640 Speaker 1: to do away with. UM. I remember Hewlett Packard buying 667 00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:11,160 Speaker 1: Compact in two thousand one for twenty three point five 668 00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:14,399 Speaker 1: billion dollars. I was a little I was a little 669 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,160 Speaker 1: stunned by that one. And then we got stunned again 670 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:21,239 Speaker 1: when when HP talked about spinning off it's uh, it's 671 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:23,880 Speaker 1: PC business. Well, then, of course, you know, Hewlett Packard 672 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,960 Speaker 1: bought three Com for two point seven billion back in 673 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,719 Speaker 1: two thousand nine, which ended up being a big mech 674 00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:33,040 Speaker 1: um um, and it didn't really it wasn't a thing 675 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:37,439 Speaker 1: for a lot of people. Um, you know, um. Trying 676 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:40,000 Speaker 1: to look for something else that people might have been 677 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,000 Speaker 1: interested in, and I do have When j D s 678 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:47,600 Speaker 1: Unifhase bought SDL in two thousand four, almost forty one billion, 679 00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: that's a big chunk of change. But again, and it's 680 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,080 Speaker 1: a huge tech acquisition, but it's not the kind of 681 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: thing that for a lot of us, those of us 682 00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,839 Speaker 1: who listened to this tech podcast, um, you know, are 683 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,359 Speaker 1: more interested in sort of the uh tech end people thing. 684 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,160 Speaker 1: And yeah, it affects a lot of people, but it's 685 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,759 Speaker 1: on the back end of things indirectly. Yeah. Yeah, And 686 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,080 Speaker 1: so a lot of us are going, well, okay, yeah, 687 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,440 Speaker 1: that's interesting. That's a lot of money, but how does 688 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,120 Speaker 1: that affect me? And for a lot of us, it's 689 00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:19,920 Speaker 1: it's not something that that we notice or touch on 690 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 1: a daily basis. Yeah. So I did wanna we'll close 691 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: this out really quickly here, and I didn't wanna say 692 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:28,480 Speaker 1: that we have to talk about news Core in MySpace 693 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,360 Speaker 1: because this is another one of those, uh those moves 694 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,120 Speaker 1: that at the time seemed like it made sense, but 695 00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:38,160 Speaker 1: as as it played out, it just did not work. 696 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,840 Speaker 1: And that was that Newscore is the parent company of 697 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 1: Fox News among other companies, and UH news Core purchased 698 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:48,120 Speaker 1: MySpace in two thousand five for five eight million dollars. Now, 699 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,160 Speaker 1: at the time, my Space was that seems like a steel. 700 00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:55,640 Speaker 1: It was incredibly popular. It was the online social network, 701 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,480 Speaker 1: and it was the place where you would go if 702 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:00,920 Speaker 1: you wanted your eyes to bleed and less into terrible music, 703 00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:03,440 Speaker 1: because that's what everyone seemed to do with their profiles. 704 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,759 Speaker 1: But that was user behavior, not the fault of the 705 00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:11,560 Speaker 1: service itself. And then Facebook came around, and most people, 706 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,000 Speaker 1: I think at the time, maybe not most people, but 707 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,560 Speaker 1: a lot of people at the time bet on my 708 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:20,160 Speaker 1: Space beating out Facebook because it had a headstart. Facebook 709 00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:24,240 Speaker 1: was was only open to college students when it first started, 710 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,440 Speaker 1: and it just, you know, it seemed like it was 711 00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:30,000 Speaker 1: it's it didn't seem as feature rich as my Space did, 712 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:33,799 Speaker 1: So how could my Space lose to Facebook? Very effectively? 713 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,600 Speaker 1: Is the way that turned out. So News Corps sold 714 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: my Space off uh in for thirty five million dollars 715 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:48,279 Speaker 1: to Specific Media, which is a group of investors. So 716 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:51,920 Speaker 1: from five million when they purchased it to thirty five 717 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,520 Speaker 1: million when they sold it, that's not a success story. 718 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,799 Speaker 1: And you know, news Score did try a couple of 719 00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:02,239 Speaker 1: times to vitalize my Space, you know, they tried to 720 00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:06,880 Speaker 1: make it more of a music discovery kind of social network. 721 00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,200 Speaker 1: But by then I think it was too late because 722 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,080 Speaker 1: my Space was one of those places where bands, a 723 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:15,239 Speaker 1: lot of bands had made their web presence known. They 724 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:17,359 Speaker 1: used them because I had great tools. If you were 725 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:18,839 Speaker 1: a band and you wanted to share some of your 726 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,839 Speaker 1: music and build up a fan base, it was a 727 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:25,960 Speaker 1: good resource. But there are other resources online now that 728 00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,800 Speaker 1: do that just as well or better in some cases. 729 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,239 Speaker 1: And uh, it just was too little, too late, and 730 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:38,040 Speaker 1: so news Corpse sold it off for million, eating that loss. 731 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,960 Speaker 1: And uh and we'll see what Specific Media does with it, 732 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,840 Speaker 1: if anything, or if they just end up cannibalizing it 733 00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,560 Speaker 1: and turning it into something else. Honestly, we don't know 734 00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:52,520 Speaker 1: right now. And uh, just one last little note how 735 00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com We were we were acquired several 736 00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:01,160 Speaker 1: years ago by Discovery Communications, so you know, we were 737 00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,759 Speaker 1: part of another company for a while and we're acquired 738 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:09,400 Speaker 1: back shortly after I joined UM within a year that 739 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:10,920 Speaker 1: I joined I think, or maybe a year and a 740 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:15,640 Speaker 1: half UM two months for me. Yeah, so we we 741 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,400 Speaker 1: ended up getting acquired by Discovery Communications and now we 742 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:22,239 Speaker 1: are part of that company. So uh yeah, it's UM 743 00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:24,279 Speaker 1: and it was interesting, you know, it was a it 744 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:27,719 Speaker 1: was a different culture, but it was very complimentary to 745 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,719 Speaker 1: what we already had. So I think as far as 746 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,919 Speaker 1: transitions go, ours was probably one of the smoothest I've 747 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:38,440 Speaker 1: ever seen. And that wraps up another classic episode of 748 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,680 Speaker 1: tech Stuff. The acquisition deal that was about to happen 749 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:43,560 Speaker 1: to me before that last commercial break kind of fell 750 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,920 Speaker 1: through at the last minute. It's a bummer. I was 751 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:48,320 Speaker 1: totally ready to get an Apple tattoo, but looks like 752 00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,560 Speaker 1: I'm just gonna have to hold off for now. If 753 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,560 Speaker 1: you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, 754 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:56,239 Speaker 1: send me an email. The address is tech Stuff at 755 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,000 Speaker 1: house stupp Works dot com, or draw me a line 756 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,920 Speaker 1: over on social media on Facebook and Twitter, it is 757 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:04,440 Speaker 1: text Stuff H s W. Pop on over to our 758 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:08,240 Speaker 1: website that's tech Stuff podcast dot com. You'll find links 759 00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,520 Speaker 1: to all the old episodes there as well, and hey, 760 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,520 Speaker 1: check out our merchandise store. It's over at t public 761 00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,200 Speaker 1: dot com slash tech stuff. There's also a link from 762 00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:20,400 Speaker 1: our website. Every purchase you make over on that site 763 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,000 Speaker 1: goes to help our show, and we greatly appreciate it, 764 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:30,319 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again and really soon. Tech 765 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 766 00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:36,000 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 767 00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:39,360 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 768 00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:40,320 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.