130 billion dollars. This is the total amount paid by Google to acquire more than 250 companies in just 35 years of existence. The biggest takeover of all is unambiguously that of Motorola Mobility in 2011. Google then set its sights on the declining phone manufacturer in order to launch its own range of smartphones.
For the occasion, the Mountain View giant paid a total of $12.5 billion, only to sell it three years later to the Chinese manufacturer Lenovo for a whopping $2.91 billion. No matter, business is going well, and, always with the aim of strengthening its position on the smartphone market, Alphabet, parent company of the most famous search engine, acquired the Pixel division of Taiwanese HTC in 2017 for $1.1 billion.
Google’s top ten acquisitions
© / Google’s top ten acquisitions
The acquisitions of DoubleClick and Admob in 2007 and 2009 for $3.1 billion and $750 million, respectively, followed a similar pattern, this time in Google’s core business: online advertising, which accounts for around 80 % of the turnover of the Californian giant, or 209.49 of the 256.73 billion generated in 2021.
Its latest acquisitions, such as that of the American cybersecurity nugget Mandiant for $5.4 billion in September 2022 or its Israeli competitor Siemplify in January of the same year, seem to indicate a new direction and a desire for domination. in a rapidly growing market, valued at $132.94 billion in 2021.