Google's Newest "Acqui-Hire"

Google announced that it was buying the popular iPhone and Macintosh email app company Sparrow for less than $25 million. While Google plans to keep the app up and running, don't expect any updates in the future. Instead, Google has assigned the company's five employees to "new projects" for Gmail. Last month Google acquired Meebo for $100 million and then shifted all of that company's employees to Google+. With a service company, the talent of the employees can be the major asset of that company and an acqui-hire can be a quick and efficient way to acquire that talent. Of course, the assets in this case can leave much more easily than a physical asset. In 2005, Google purchased Dodgeball, but the company's founders left Google in 2007 when they felt that Google failed to support the service.