Both Google and Apple are making acquisitions this week. Google gets hold of AppJet, the maker of EtherPad, a realtime web based collaborative word processor. There is a post on the EtherPad site that says they will be joining the Google Wave Team.Kinda makes sense to stick those guys together. Both are pushing the real time collaborative thing but my question is, why not shove some of that real time web goodness into Google Docs? Maybe I'm missing the point on the big picture here but I wonder, if Google is really serious about moving Docs into the enterprise, why not start by integrating real time collaboration and target the groupware that is so entrenched and expensive (ie. office and lotus notes). Oh yea, in case you were curious the price is rumored to be in the low 8 figures.
Apple is trying to acquire Lala.com and apparently integrate this into iTunes. Maybe is thinking about transforming iTunes into a streaming type service rather than stay with downloads. I don't really get this one to be honest. Apple already has a stream model for movie rentals and most people are still obsessed with carrying around storage devices for every song and movie they own. Personally, I'd rather just stream it all and not have to worry about managing all that data storage, but then I guess I'm odd.
The real question that I was thinking about at the start was is the economy going to follow Big Tech now that money is getting spent again? Not that I'm a cynic or anything but hearing over the passed couple months from politicians that the economy is recovering, has not inspired me in the least. Apple and Google however seem to be a couple of the most successful companies going right now and the fact that they are buying again tells me one thing. The economy really might be getting ready to grow again and now is the best time to start acquisitions before other companies profits and net worth start going up again. I guess it's all a matter of time either way.
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