Mountain View, California — Well, that sure was an intelligent move. Global search engine titan, Google Inc., has acquired a Seattle-based Sparkbuy, a search engine for consumer electronics devices, less than six months after its debut, according to a note on the Sparkbuy website.
Sparkbuy, the Seattle-based startup led by entrepreneur Dan Shapiro, which has raised $1 million in funding, is a high-powered product search engine and comparison shopping site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sparkbuy has ceased operations and the three-person team (CEO Dan Shapiro, Scott Haug, and Isaac Myers) will join Google’s Kirkland, Washington office.
The news comes just a little more than a month after Shapiro unveiled Sparkbuy. The site has been shut down, and from the note below it looks like the startup’s founder are joining Google as employees. According to Seattle Times, they will be working on Google’s new mortgage, credit card, and bank account comparison site Advisor, which was launched last week.
Sparkbuy, an online service that allows users to compare prices and features of various electronics gadgets. (TVs, laptops, etc.). Just enter which criteria are important to you, and the search engine aims to allow a user to easily get recommendations on consumer electronics (like laptops) based on various input criteria and preferences, including price, feature options (like memory, hard drive space, battery life, etc.), among other filters. At launch last year, the startup was only focusing on laptops.
However, Shapiro declined to comment, but a message on the company’s Web site states that they are “stoked about the opportunity to share our vision for search with a broader audience.”
Here is the full message that greeted Sparkbuy’s visitors:
“We are excited that Sparkbuy will be joining Google,” Google said in a statement. “They have built an impressive comparison shopping site that is simple in design yet powerful for consumers, and we think their expertise, vision and energy will be a great addition to our Kirkland office.”
The search engine works by accumulating various bits of information about products and generating recommendations based on aggregated data. Sparkbuy has thousands of products in its database, including from Amazon Inc., and even has more than 3,000 products from North America’s largest consumer electronics chain Best Buy Inc. after reaching a deal with the company within weeks after it launched.
Shapiro would not comment on the sale, but, this marks a quick turnaround for Shapiro in less than two years: who, in December 2009, consolidated his photo-sharing company, Ontela, with the recently independent Photobucket.
Surprisingly, this marks one of the faster flips we have seen in recent years, right up there with Facebook’s buy of stealthy mobile startup Rel8tion before it even launched.
Below are some of Google’s Other 2011 Acquisitions:
- TalkBin
- PushLife
- Green Parrot Pictures
- Next New Networks
- BeatThatQuote.com
- Zynamics
- fflick
- SayNow
- eBook Technologies
Nevertheless, technology companies like Google, Facebook and Zynga have been gobbling up startups for talent more so than the products they have built. In other words, this more or less looks like a talent acquisition.