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Re: Small tool

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 2:46 pm
by Eran
No other serious publication has specified deal terms. No offense to sitepoint, that figure seems to come out of thin air.
reCaptcha does not generate revenue, so 500$mil seems very excessive.

Re: Small tool

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:47 am
by Jenk
The value of a tool has no bearing on its revenue, profits, or actual worth. It is simply down to how much person A is willing to pay person B to buy it.

reCAPTCHA developers could well have just held up a high price tag, because they know it's google with their seemingly endless supply of cash, and Google probably thought "We've spent $5m in an hour before." as well as "It'll cost us more than $5m to create something as functional as reCAPTCHA."

Something is only worth that which someone is willing to pay for it. We can evaluate things in as much a fine detail as we want, but if no one is willing to pay, it's not worth squat. Likewise, it might not be of any use at all, but if someone is willing to pay a lot, it's worth a lot.

Re: Small tool

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:00 am
by Eran
All I'm saying is that no other publication named a price-tag but sitepoint. Unless they got some kind of insider information, it seems more likely that its based on mere speculation. There is a method to valuating companies, and Google are not saps, they don't just pour money because they can.

Re: Small tool

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:11 am
by onion2k
http://www.website-design-newcastle.co.uk/articles/54

A list of Google's acquisitions to date. It seems very unlikely that they'd have 5 times paid more for reCaptcha than they did for Feedburner. I'd say it'd be more equivalent to GrandCentral ... $45m.