Google goes shopping, acquiring three companies in the past week

Google has splashed out on three companies in the past week, acquiring restaurant website builder Appetas, cloud monitoring service Stackdriver, and back office systems provider Rangespan.

Appetas announced on its blog it has been acquired by the search engine giant in what appears to be an ‘acqui-hire’, with no amount disclosed about the value of the deal. In its statement, the company’s founders, Keller Smith and Curtis Fonger, said they were looking forward to using what they had learnt with Appetas “to create something even better at Google”.  

“To focus on our new endeavors, we’ll be shutting down the Appetas service and working with our customers to transition their websites over to alternative platforms. We’ll be reaching out to each customer individually to ensure a smooth transition,” the Seattle-based company’s statement said.

Cloud monitoring firm Stackdriver, based in the US city of Boston, has also been bought by Google, with the company’s founders keen to emphasise the fit between their service specialty and Google’s cloud strategy. 

“Our new colleagues on the Google Cloud Platform team share our passion for helping developers build great products. They also know a thing or two about data visualization, analytics, and cloud computing. We could not be more excited to join forces and innovate together,” a statement on Stackdriver’s website said.

Google’s third purchase for the week was across the Atlantic in the UK, where it acquired Rangespan, a company that specialises in back-end sales analysis for retailers.

The company was founded by two former Amazon executives and counted UK supermarket Tesco among its clients. A statement on its website said the company was excited to be joining Google and will be winding down its services as part of the changeover.

Google has now acquired 11 companies this year, with its purchase of Nest Labs in January for $US3.2 billion ($US3.5b) being the most costly.