Maybe Eric Schmidt was reading this blog over the weekend. On Saturday, I observed that Eric was being coy when he called the enterprise an agreed that the enterprise was a backup plan for Google, just in case that whole advertising thing doesn’t pan out as planned.
Today, Google announced it is acquiring Postini to beef up its enterprise offerings. Eric said:
“With this transaction, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes.”
No public company I can think of spends $625 million in cash on a backup plan. So, maybe Eric read my post on Saturday and since I’d exposed his coyness, felt he should react quickly. Witness the power of AppsLab.
After all this is one of the most stealthy deals in recent memory, considering neither Mike Arrington at TechCrunch, nor Om Malik at GigaOM reported it in advance as a rumor. Or today, referred to that one time (at band camp) when they reported it in advance. Wait a minute, did it even really happen? When Google swallows Etelos and I will have snatched the pebble, it will be time to leave.
Robert Scoble is still fiddling with his iPhone, until Fake Steve Jobs shuts off his service. He gets a pass.
Anyway, congrats Craig, and anyone else I know at Postini. At some point, everyone I know will work for Google.
