Google’s biggest acquisition to date is its 2012 purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5B. See the rest of the top 10 in one graphic.
Over 12 years ago, tech giant Google announced its largest acquisition since it incorporated in a Menlo Park garage, paying $1.7B for YouTube, a video platform that at the time had fewer than 100 employees.
Since then, Google’s checkbook has opened wide, with over 200 announced acquisitions.
Google’s biggest acquisition to date is Motorola Mobility, which it acquired for $12.5B in 2012 before selling it off for a quarter of its acquisition price 2 years later. Its largest acquisition which it still holds is cybersecurity company Mandiant, which it acquired for $5.4B in 2022.
Using CB Insights M&A data, we made a visual timeline of the largest acquisitions in Google’s history. See the list of top 10 below.
Please click to enlarge.
Here are Google’s Top 10 Acquisitions
- Motorola Mobility ($12.5B, 2012) — Mobile
- Mandiant ($5.4B, 2022) — Cybersecurity
- Nest Labs ($3.2B, 2014) — Home automation
- DoubleClick ($3.1B, 2007) — Advertising
- Looker ($2.6B, 2019) — Business intelligence
- Fitbit ($2.1B, 2019) — Wearables
- YouTube ($1.7B, 2006) — Video sharing
- Waze ($1.15B, 2013) — Mapping
- HTC – Pixel Smartphone Division ($1.1B, 2017) — Mobile
- AdMob ($750M, 2009) — Advertising
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Google has spent nearly $34B on its top 10 acquisitions.
- Google’s $12.5B acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012 was by far its largest deal.
- 9 of the top deals pictured had valuations greater than $1B, including marketing solutions provider DoubleClick ($3.1B, 2007) and navigation app Waze ($1.15B, 2013). YouTube ($1.7B, 2006) was Google’s first $1B+ acquisition and remains its seventh largest deal.
- These top deals reflect Google’s strategy evolution, from adtech (AdMob, DoubleClick) in the late 2000s to mobile (Motorola Mobility) and wearables (Fitbit) in the 2010s to cloud computing (Mandiant).