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November 13, 2006

Google Takes Out Ajax Spreadsheet iRows

Michael Arrington

30 comments »

A popular Hebrew blog is reporting that the two founders of Israeli startup iRows have been hired by Google. Along with ZohoSheet and NumSum, iRows is one of a few online Ajax spreadsheets that competes with Google’s own Excel-clone. The blog reports that the founders will retain the intellectual property in iRows, but that the site will be shut down.

If this is accurate, the deal is a mirror of the Google-Gtalkr deal from May 2006, where the founders, brothers Wes and Dudley Carr, joined Google and agreed to close the site down.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Homeaway receives $160 million in funding « Chimney

    November 13th, 2006 at 10:22 pm

  2. Ben-Ari.Name » Google Shuts Down iRows?

    November 14th, 2006 at 12:31 am

  3. Google contrata a los fundadores de iRows « Blog de Harry Gonzales

    November 14th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

  4. 구글(Google), iRows 창립자 스카우트

    November 14th, 2006 at 6:48 pm

  5. Gstories » Spreadsheet buyout

    November 14th, 2006 at 9:33 pm

  6. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Google Absorbing iRows

    November 15th, 2006 at 11:13 am

  7. Instant Cognition » Blog Archive » R.I.P. iRows?

    November 15th, 2006 at 11:53 pm

  8. EditGrid Developers Blog » Blog Archive » Obituary to iRows

    November 16th, 2006 at 12:59 am

  9. Google Absorbing iRows

    November 19th, 2006 at 8:54 am

  10. Google Absorbing iRows » JenIT

    November 21st, 2006 at 3:09 am

Comments

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  1. Dave

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:06 pm

    Michael - you have been busy tonight…that is a lot of news. But still, nothing on the $150,000,000 deal.

    I think any website that raises $200,000,000 deserves a mention…even if it is “1.0″ - don’t be a hater.

  2. Michael Arrington

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:10 pm

    Dave - you got me. I hate HomeAway and I am conspiring to keep the world from knowing that they raised $150m. :-)

    Go start a blog. Post the news.

  3. Dave

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

    Michael,

    Already did. PineNeedleLawn.com. Hey…just because some of us prefer a search box over a tag cloud… :-)

  4. Robert

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

    Dave - Very good find. I did a little digging and found more information here (for those who are interested): http://www.homeaway.com/index......ase_111306

    The amount of money they are betting on that company is insane… Is it some sort of joke? Am I missing something?

    Mike - Very good job reading Hebrew ;) I remember when Writely was acquired, people were trying to scope out the next office-app (i.e. Excel)… Looks like iRows is the winner. Congrats.

  5. lemon obrien

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:42 pm

    those guys are stupid, all they get is a job? shit, they must be stupid. They could’ve just sold out and then contracted for three years….and the IP is javascript; its not like in 1/2 years time it won’t be out of date.

  6. lemon obrien

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:54 pm

    i think you don’t like HomeAway b/c its a real business. funny, but none of thecompanies you profile have a real “bidness” model.

    i do think 150 million is a little bit overboard. I actually like the idea. This is big on craigslist…but you guys in the valley probably never make it out of the w4m section.

    you should start profiling companies trying to do something. shit, i’m trying to change the world but cants get no love cause its p2p…

    do you know how boring the browser is?

  7. David

    November 13th, 2006 at 9:55 pm

    Hi Michael,

    May I invite you to take a look at EditGrid? Click the following URL to start a spreadsheet immediately.

    http://www.editgrid.com/new

    This blog mentioned that you may have missed this one:
    http://www.accmanpro.com/2006/.....ch-missed/

    David

  8. Stuart

    November 13th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

    I wonder if they job a lump sum payment as payoff as well as employment contracts? Hmm

    Real life version of Google Bowling imo :P

    Stuart
    http://www.earnersblog.com/

  9. Sergio

    November 13th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

    Back in the day when Microsoft was buying out competition, we screamed foul. Now that Google is hiring the competition, should we scream foul? I mean, this action still reduces competition, and most seem to agree that competition is good for a healthy capitalist economy. Does it make it somehow alright that they are hiring them while shutting them down?

  10. Don Wilson

    November 13th, 2006 at 10:40 pm

    This is a little anti-competitive nature on the side of Google, I’m not too sure if I like it…

  11. Reggie Chan

    November 13th, 2006 at 10:56 pm

    Oh, there are fewer and fewer players in the online spreadsheet arena. Apart from http://doc.google.com, only http://www.zohosheet.com and http://www.editgrid.com are actively improving the service. The market is still new, I guess there will be more players to come and join the party, what you guys think?

  12. jack

    November 13th, 2006 at 11:21 pm

    # 5: stupidity is relative. Back in the days msft offered to buy companies for what they woudl be worth after destroying them.

    And goggle may have offered them some $$$. Who knows

  13. Ed French

    November 13th, 2006 at 11:24 pm

    I wonder if irows had any useful patents- their referencing between workbooks being a possible. That would be another reason for this move from Google. My guess is that irows had little option than to exit anyway given their need to take on some serious competition in this space- I can’t imagine the investors were queuing up?

  14. lemon obrien

    November 14th, 2006 at 12:17 am

    @10 true, stupidity is relative, but they must be young, cause its a job, and they want to keep their IP…which google isn’t buying….and if it was buying the company, it would own that…

    i’m just thinking, they could gt a job making burgers, and ride it out…a job is a job, it don’t matter if its google or microsoft, same shit, different place.

  15. Austin Tayshus

    November 14th, 2006 at 1:09 am

    Taking out the competition is competing. Besides, the service is free, not limited like MSFT. Do any of you kids actually run a business?

  16. Al

    November 14th, 2006 at 1:42 am

    If you are talking about players in the web spreadsheet market you should also be mentioning and reviewing EditGrid. They are very much the leader both feature wise and thiought wise in the market place. They have also been around a while I discovered them back in March. We have covered some of the more advancaed features recently at Folknology in our Labs series.

    You really should take a look at them Mike, they are an interesting bunch especially David Lee the founder.
    regards
    Al

  17. dave

    November 14th, 2006 at 9:07 am

    well, you can now see exactly why: http://www.irows.com/View?id=20124 (a feature by feature comparison of spreadsheets from google and irows)

  18. dumbfounder

    November 14th, 2006 at 6:46 pm

    It’s probably a ton easier to just give them a signing bonus and hire them than to buy the company. That way they can keep the details under wraps for longer too (forever?). Very smart way to purchase small companies with no investors to appease.

  19. Stephen

    November 15th, 2006 at 1:03 am

    I am suprised that google would be interested in iRows as i have been following the online spreadsheets for several months now - and considered iRows to be an OK product but no where near the scale of google or editgrid spreadsheet, which I consider to be the only 2 that are actually useable out there.

    And yes - I have used zohosheet a lot and have had so many bugs, problems and issues with it - and their confusing interface that i do not consider it even in the market.

    If Google had looked at buying editgrid - that I could understand.

    But who know what google will do next - maybe even buy TechCrunch :)

  20. A. AUDDY

    January 30th, 2007 at 1:00 am

    Would like to know more about the same. Read in a article in India’s newspaper Mumbai Mirror

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