Court Exhibit·11 OCT 2010
Buy the Competitor to Buy Yourself Time
Sometimes you acquire a rival not to use what they built, but to stop the clock while you fix what you have.
Source document — United States v. Google LLC (Ad Tech) — PTX0058: Email from Neal Mohan to Jason Harinstein (October 11, 2010) · United States v. Google LLC (Ad Tech) · 1:23-cv-00108 (VAED), Trial Ex. PTX0058 — DOJ public archive (page 1)
Excerpt · In Neal Mohan's own words
3) What do you guys think about acquiring one of them? Is that like giving up before trying? I am concerned that it will take a long time to sort out the org stuff internally. One way to make sure we dont get further behind in the market is picking up the one with the most traction and parking it somewhere.
Scott and I have not talked much about this yet. I have come around to believing we should go into due diligence and probably make a buy. It does not solve a ton of problems by itself, but as you say if we bought one and parked it, it would let us solve the problems from a position of strength (market share, knowledgeable team members). Kind of like how we had time to build XFP because DFP was doing so well. The biggest problem is having two inventory pools (AdX and YM-RTB system) which if we leave it up could be confusing to buyers and to publishers deciding which to use; or if we tried to combine them fast could yield a Falk-like situation (a mix of advantages and feature gaps, and some pubs upset about what they lose).
looks like there is going to be interest in YM. if we go down that path it will become my top priority like invite was. maybe the first thing we should do is have a prelim meeting (you and i probably) with their CEO.
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How this surfaced
- Source type
- Court Exhibit
- Case / record
- United States v. Google LLC (Ad Tech)
- Citation
- 1:23-cv-00108 (VAED), Trial Ex. PTX0058 — DOJ public archive
- Date authored
- October 11, 2010
- License
- Public domain
- Original
- View the primary source →
Mark Zuckerberg ·Meta Platforms, Inc. ·11 FEB 2012
When Your Original Thesis Is Wrong, Pay To Fix It Fast
If a small competitor has already won the use case your future depends on, the cheapest option is usually to buy them — before the market figures out how valuable they are.
David Drummond ·Google ·23 MAR 2007
When a Rival Bids, Your Build Plan Becomes a Buy Decision
A build-it-yourself plan is only valid until a competitor's checkbook makes the timeline irrelevant.
Neal Mohan ·Google LLC ·23 MAR 2009
Don't Bleed an Acquisition to Death by a Thousand Cuts
An acquired business is worth more than its P&L — cut it like a standalone and you destroy the very reason you bought it.