On Monday AOL will announce the acquisition of San Diego-based Goowy, a startup founded in late 2004 and which launched, incidentally, in my living room in late 2006 (we had a TechCrunch party where Goowy, Meebo, Sphere and other startups launched). The size of the deal is not being disclosed.
Their first product was a Flash-based webtop or alternative operating system. But later they went into the widget space with their YourMinis product, and that is the reason AOL has acquired them.
AOL SVP of Social Media, Messaging and Homepages David Liu said this was a deal they’ve been considering for the last nine months, and that they plan to integrate Goowy’s technology into both user-facing AOL products (to widgetize them) as well as their Platform A advertising network. Expect Platform A to launch significant new advertising products in the widget space soon, Liu says.
This is a significant win for Goowy founder and CEO Alex Bard, who has run a tight operation over the years. The company has just six employees and raised a single round of financing from Mark Cuban in April 2006 (the size of that round remains undisclosed, but it was almost certainly under $1 million). He says the Goowy team will remain in San Diego for at least the short term.
Goowy competes with a number of startups in the widget advertising space, including Widgetbox, ClearSpring and Gigya. VideoEgg, Slide and RockYou also compete in this area.
AOL has been busy acquiring promising young startups – they bought Israel-based Yedda last November as well.
For how much?
“The size of the deal is not being disclosed.”
I always liked Goowy, one of the better in their class of web desktop and widget providers, and always nice to see the little guy get a decent pay day.
Looks like another win for the Blog Maverick.
go goowy!
Having known alex since ‘04, it looks like the teams hard work is finally paying off. Keep up the good work guys.
It’s likely a small deal. Why don’t they acquire anything big or strategic to compete against Google and others?
Another glory demonstration for the flash-enabled browser-based services…
Why does AOL need Goowy?
SO great to hear about Goowy!! Thanks for the news, Arrington! I’m always happy to see San Diego shine a bit in 2.0
So glad to hear this. I have always been a fan of goowy and have secretly(yes, rather sneakily I might ad) talked about them in comments of blogs to promote them. They really deserve a day like this. Great Job guys.
Congrats to Goowy. As a former office neighbor to Goowy, I can say there couldn’t be nicer guys! Alex is awesome. He has always been friendly and a good help to a young startup like us. Here to hoping they stick around San Diego as we need our web companies
Duncan, You toke the words right out of my mouth.
Congrats Goowy guys!
Thanks so much for everyone’s support. There have been so many great people that helped us along the way: our friends, our family, our partners, our users, entrepreneurs (dreamers / visionaries), and yes Mike for giving startups a platform to be heard.
This is just the beginning for us and we plan to do a lot of exciting new things now that we are a part of AOL. Stay tuned – its going to be a fun ride!
Couldn’t have happened to nicer people.
They’ve been so supportive of other tech companies in the area.
Awesome guys, congrats!
Go San Diego!
Congrats, guys.
Congratulations guys
AOL is so fortunate to have you. Can’t wait to celebrate this with you.
Great going Goowy..
Michael, now that you have studied the launching, acquisition of so many startups, why don’t you write a series of posts on what to do and what not to in order to launch and sell our own little startups..
although it is another win for the Blog Maverick. i think it is a small deal they should try for something bigger and better which will contribute a big amount towards their online presence. any ways congrats!!!
With this acquisition and Yedda’s one last November, AOL is showing signs of an improving strategic view towards the web, which proves that the old internet giant is still relevant in the current times.
I would like to commend Goowy for the wise and correct steering of their startup, the fact that they realized the core value of their business (flash components/widgets) and went into the growing distributed widgets economy instead of getting stuck in the personalized homepage that has been dominated by others, proves that dynamism is what really matters in business during these extremely fast times.
I posted about it on my blog http://technozzle.com/?p=85
why not take it, start something new
How do you rate? Check out http://www.yupnup.com
http://www.yupnup.com
Goowy guys posted about the acquisition on their blog http://blog.you...y-acquired.html
Awesome
A Goowy competitor also with <$1m funding is Protopage.com
congrats to goowy…love to hear little guys getting acquired – sweet success
Congrats to alex bard and company, couldn’t have happened to a better group of folks!
Reading these posts it is clear AOL not only bought a slick application, but perhaps more importantly a first-class team. I couldn’t be more proud of Alex, Jeremy, Gary, Sashi and the rest of team!
why all the congrats? Aol will kill this product and stiffle innovation. Ask mike jones at userplane.
the hardest part for such a small good team is to be integrated in a huge bureaucratic company, good luck
but perhaps, after having the money, they dont care
You guys are the best — a delight to work with from day one. And I know that even bigger things are yet to come!
Big congrats are due. Great team, solid product and always a pleasure to work with.
Congrats to the Goowy team! Alex has done a great job staying focused and lean with his operations and strategy. Hopefully you guys can stay in San Diego.
Orli! Nice to see your comments. Goowy was one of the first companies I started to follow way back when you were starting your blog. Its too bad I’m so emersed in netvibes to give their service a try right now…
I’m glad to see a positive outcome for Goowy and hope they see continued success within AOL – I think they’ll be a big asset to the company, especially the UI. Couldn’t happen to a better group of guys, as a friend and business partner I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with the Goowy team. Congrats!
Goowy’s great- the tech side of goowy and YourMinis.com is impressive. For AOL to get that kind of talent is wise, so long as they (the goowy guys) don’t take the money and run.
i need to talk something to you.. urgently, i really need an answer please
Is this the beginning of the Web 2.0 Bubble Burst?
Wow, first Yedda and now this. It gives hope to small start-ups like FunAdvice that success is possible.
c’est de la balle