Google Buying Wavii After Bidding War With Apple

WaviiGoogle 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.

Wavii
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

theheadguy Avatar
132 months ago
If Apple bought it, it would have died an instant death.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goodcow Avatar
132 months ago
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.)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AZREOSpecialist Avatar
132 months ago
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?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Oletros Avatar
132 months ago
Any chance they can't outbid Google, because the share price tanked while GOOG still seems to be flying?

None?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alent1234 Avatar
132 months ago
Tried the app
Google over paid
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1083296 Avatar
132 months ago
seems a ridiculous sum for a simple app....
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Google Assistant

Google I/O 2016: Assistant, Home, Allo, Duo, Android N, and More

Wednesday May 18, 2016 11:51 am PDT by
Google hosted its annual I/O developers keynote at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California today, announcing multiple new products and services related to Android, search, messaging, home automation, and more. Google Assistant Google Assistant is described as a "conversational assistant" that builds upon Google Now based on two-way dialog. The tool can be used, for example,...