It's official: Google buys Zenter(googleblog.blogspot.com)
googleblog.blogspot.com
It's official: Google buys Zenter
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
48 comments
Well, now you have something to say to all those haters (the ones that think you abandoned your families or whatever such nonsense).
What technology did Zenter use to build their service? Python? Java? I'm just wondering if Google has a preference for certain technologies.
Somebody asked Chris Sacca (one of Google's main acquisition guys) this at the first Startup School. His answer was "Build it in whatever language will let you get to market and start getting users fastest. Usually when Google buys a company, we have to rewrite all the code anyway to take advantage of Google's infrastructure and scale to millions of users."
This doesn't answer your question about Zenter, but it should about Google...
This doesn't answer your question about Zenter, but it should about Google...
It's predominantly JavaScript.
I believe the back end is Java.
I believe the back end is Java.
I think you are right. Whois.sc cached the server response headers before Google switched the server, and it was "Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) DAV/2 mod_jk/1.2.21 SVN/1.4.4". mod_jk is a Tomcat connector, so it would make sense that the site would be written in Java.
Good to hear, I hope it was a good payout for the founders!
An incredible win-win. I'm looking forward to hearing the official buyout cost! (And I'm looking forward to using the app.)
Will the founders survive at the Googleplex for long?
Was Google's earlier vaporware announcement a strategy to get Zenter at a lower cost? Probably not, as they really need that app one way or another for the suite. Excellent recovery that Zenter got bought instead of ending up on ebay.
Also congratulations to the Y Combinator team - yet another good call added to the record. The PR from this will be big.
Will the founders survive at the Googleplex for long?
Was Google's earlier vaporware announcement a strategy to get Zenter at a lower cost? Probably not, as they really need that app one way or another for the suite. Excellent recovery that Zenter got bought instead of ending up on ebay.
Also congratulations to the Y Combinator team - yet another good call added to the record. The PR from this will be big.
It's interesting that Zenter agreed to an acquisition before publicly launching. I don't recall seeing this too often.
Would they have survived a presentation-ware duel with Google or would they have suffered a fate similar to Kiko's?
I can't remember when I first heard about Zenter but it seems like I've been anticipating its release for a while. We generally hear that it's good to release early and update often so I'm interested in the story behind all of this.
Would it have been better for them to hold out and build a user base so they could be acquired for more money?
Would they have survived a presentation-ware duel with Google or would they have suffered a fate similar to Kiko's?
I can't remember when I first heard about Zenter but it seems like I've been anticipating its release for a while. We generally hear that it's good to release early and update often so I'm interested in the story behind all of this.
Would it have been better for them to hold out and build a user base so they could be acquired for more money?
This makes the second service I know of (after Youtube) that Google's acquired despite already having internal teams working on a product.
"... Will the founders survive at the Googleplex for long? ..." && "... second service I know of (after Youtube) that Google's acquired despite already having internal teams working on a product ..."
I was wondering about this as well, then I read this post. It must have an impact on the 'engineers' who work there having groups of buyouts with vesting periods and larger payouts. There must be some level of resentment (it's human nature). How does google manage this?
I was wondering about this as well, then I read this post. It must have an impact on the 'engineers' who work there having groups of buyouts with vesting periods and larger payouts. There must be some level of resentment (it's human nature). How does google manage this?
Yeah, also it is not particularly cool after you sold that you need to go at Google to work on this stuff. I mean... ok... after some year the vesting period expires and you are rich and goodbye, but in some way after the acquisition you became a "worker" for Google with much less freedom than before: this sucks.
It's standard procedure to go work at the acquirer after getting bought. I did it myself. It's not so bad. Having just become rich tends to put you in a pretty cheerful mood, which makes all the everyday annoyances of working at a big co slide off you. Plus Google is probably the most hacker-compatible of all big cos.
Plus Google is probably the most hacker-compatible of all big cos.
Maybe N years ago when google was a little startup. In every big company there is the rule that you need to do a specific stuff, and this is the worst thing that an hacker can suffer, at least in my experience: all the hackers I know tend to switch domain every few months, just the time to understand "how it works".
Maybe N years ago when google was a little startup. In every big company there is the rule that you need to do a specific stuff, and this is the worst thing that an hacker can suffer, at least in my experience: all the hackers I know tend to switch domain every few months, just the time to understand "how it works".
If Google's going to pay me X million dollars or even X million GOOGs, I'd be more than happy working there until the integration is complete.
"... in some way after the acquisition you became a "worker" for Google with much less freedom ..."
In some ways post - acquisition isn't, 'job-done'. It makes more sense to see the task through integration in the new company. It is still your baby and I'll bet anyone working on it would see it that way. At the same time It would make sense also to give yourself a cut-off date working for soft-co.
In some ways post - acquisition isn't, 'job-done'. It makes more sense to see the task through integration in the new company. It is still your baby and I'll bet anyone working on it would see it that way. At the same time It would make sense also to give yourself a cut-off date working for soft-co.
YC totally got a recipe.Paul G.tell us what it is. It has to be more than "Make something people want".
YC's recipe is: make people make something people want.
Seriously, making something people want was exactly what the Zenters did. Everyone could see at Demo Day that they'd made something users would like.
Seriously, making something people want was exactly what the Zenters did. Everyone could see at Demo Day that they'd made something users would like.
"... The smart money is saying this is a build, not a buy. ..." ~ TC, April 17, 2007 ~ http://tinyurl.com/yo99gh
So if you make things that other want, did zenter purposefully make it's product to fill the gap in google office? If so it's a risky (ballsy) strategy to compete head to head with google if they have announced their intentions. What I want to know is what happened in the following 2 months?
Was zenter X times better than the internal version?
So if you make things that other want, did zenter purposefully make it's product to fill the gap in google office? If so it's a risky (ballsy) strategy to compete head to head with google if they have announced their intentions. What I want to know is what happened in the following 2 months?
Was zenter X times better than the internal version?
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That's really exciting. Congrats to the team.
And woot!, you just raised all our valuations a little bit!
Zenters - a question if you are around - did you ever end up hiring a non-founder employee?
Happy Father's Day (one of the founders is a father, right?)
Congrats guys! happy to hear about your success!
Congrats to all yall as we say in the south!
Congratulations to the Zenter team!
Way to go, guys. Brilliant!
Really exciting. Congrats.
Holy moly. Way to go!
Awesome - well done!
Way to go, Zenters!
Congrats guys : )
Please update the link: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-sharing.html
Congrats dudes!!
Good work guys!
Very nice :-)
Congrats YC and Zenters!
Congrats.
Nice job!
wow - well done!
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/19/google-acquires-zenter-to-fill-out-coming-powerpoint-application/