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Google has bought aggregation and summarization startup Wavii for more than $30 million, winning a bidding war with Apple over the firm. TechCrunch is reporting that Apple wanted to integrate the company with its Siri division.
Both Apple and Google were competing for the Seattle-based startup, and Google eventually won. Apple wanted the company, which developed its own aggregation technology and natural summarizaton algorithms, for its Siri division. The 25-person-strong team including founder Adrian Aoun will be moving down from Seattle to join Google’s Knowledge Graph division.
With more than $135 billion in cash, the $30 million price tag would not have been a significant outlay for Apple, but it appears the company did not value Wavii enough to outbid Google. Wavii had raised $2 million in venture funding.
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Wavii's iOS app automatically delivers news and status updates on customized topics to users and is available free for iPhone on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)It's pretty clear the $30m threshold is the point at which Apple could author their own code to match the functionality
Except Apple has proven time and time again that they're too cheap to hire more engineers to actually keep dedicated resources on projects, and instead shuffle teams around and let products wither on the vine (currently see: iWork, iLife, Aperture, etc.)
Any chance they can't outbid Google, because the share price tanked while GOOG still seems to be flying?
What does bidding on a company have to do with share price when you have almost $140 BILLION sitting in the bank?
Any chance they can't outbid Google, because the share price tanked while GOOG still seems to be flying?
None?
Google over paid