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