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February 7, 2008

This Week’s Plaxo Merger Rumor: Google

Michael Arrington

18 comments »

In the words of one Silicon Valley insider that I spoke with today, “Plaxo has been desperately, desperately, desperately trying to sell” for quite some time. Late last year they got serious and hired an investment bank, Revolution Partners, to help move things along.

The rumor mill really got going when Revolution Partners started making their calls and sending out the company’s financial information to potential buyers. A rumor about a Facebook acquisition turned out to be false. Now Wired is reporting that Google may be doing the deal, for $200 million. Writer Megan McCarthy says she’s 100% sure a deal has been done, and thinks Google is the most likely buyer.

Plaxo did around $5 million in 2006 revenue, doubling that to $10-$12 million in 2007. 2008 projections are $20-$25 million. The company has 1.8 million worldwide visitors per month (Comscore).

Did Google buy them? The two companies are certainly friendly. Plaxo has been a big supporter of Google Open Social from the start, and has consistently adopted new Google social products. And Google’s new Social Graph API gels nicely with what Plaxo has done with Pulse.

More as this develops, if it does.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 5:35 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.

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  1. sumaphil.de

    February 18th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

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  1. Chris

    February 7th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    NOOOO…Now not only Google has my searches, now they have my contact information. Dang it.

  2. Cam

    February 7th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Plaxo won’t merge with Google. They’ll be absorbed.

  3. Adam Teece

    February 7th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

    This would make me very happy. Plaxo has been having some issues in syncing with Google Calendar, and I really want that to work. The reason being is that my phone syncs to Google Calendar, and I have iCal sync to Plaxo. If we can make this full circle, it would rock.

  4. Koby

    February 7th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

    If Google buys them and gets some sort of OTA syncing for contacts for my BlackBerry, that would rock. That’s the only thing missing from my BlackBerry/Google sync relationship

  5. New Fast Browser

    February 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

    This week everybody is selling themself to MSFT or GOOG.

    http://www.jhatak.com/Buckler/BucklerHomePage.htm

  6. David

    February 7th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Does plaxo remind anyone of the old zkey.com?

  7. Serge

    February 8th, 2008 at 2:30 am

    this would be so cool actually. Plaxo with Google calendar? now all they have to do is buy LinkedIn and HighRise and they’ll have their own SFA tool! :)

  8. Steven Di Pietro

    February 8th, 2008 at 2:38 am

    Please make it so. Plaxo needs better google contacts synch. Then I can go Blackberry to Outlook to Plaxo to Linkedin to Google and back. Souind complex - so integrate then kill Plaxo. Who cares as long as it works.

  9. Wayne Schulz

    February 8th, 2008 at 2:59 am

    Google needs some sync ability for their contacts. To the extent that this rumored acquisition would help Google sync contacts - it’s a very good thing.

    My opinion is that Google Apps for Domains is a Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange killer. It’s not that way TODAY - but someday soon users are going to tire of having to load software to their individual machines.

    It’s so very convenient to use applications that are web based. Changing computers or working remotely can happen with no IT involvement or additional hassles.

    Google is leading the charge to this - and I think any acquisition that lets you synchronize contacts with Google will be very welcome (Note: Google currently has the ability to Sync Blackberry handhelds to both email and calendar. The biggest missing piece of the puzzle is a sync for contacts)

  10. towerone

    February 8th, 2008 at 4:23 am

    Where have you guys been - this was news a month ago1

    http://towerone.com/2008/01/03.....-of-plaxo/

  11. dMix

    February 8th, 2008 at 5:29 am

    I like how every one who uses Googles API is now friendly with Google and it may be a sign they have a merger. I’ve heard this mentioned in at least 3-4 rumours recently that never came true.

  12. rubu

    February 8th, 2008 at 7:07 am

    The reason being is that my phone syncs to Google Calendar, and I have iCal sync to Plaxo.

  13. AntiTroll

    February 8th, 2008 at 8:31 am

    What’s the saying, that’s right, desperation is not pretty

  14. dave

    February 8th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    another privacy and information control nightmare in the works…google is the new PROMIS (no, not ‘promise’ i mean PROMIS - google it!!)

  15. Yateen

    February 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    I received a pulse invitation today and came to know of Plaxo only now. After seeing the site the first thought in my mind was “Is this a Google company?” and so went to the about and privacy pages. And in 10 min I find this place all a coincidence? Good if true.

  16. anon

    February 9th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    any purchaser of plaxo should check in with reunion.com/good contacts regarding control of the underlying patents that are expressed in their business. lawsuits usually emerge when there’s a deep pocketed owner to pursue.

  17. NivekNYC

    February 20th, 2008 at 6:34 am

    Ditto for OTA Blackberry contact sync.

    Pitching to business community also makes google apps for domains more appealing too.

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