“Any Second Now,” Google Will Acquire…

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 by Andy Beal

“Any Second Now,” Google Will Acquire…

I don’t know The Inquirer’s success rate in speculating on upcoming acquisitions, but the site sure seems convinced that Google is about to acquire Valve:

WELL PLACED SOURCES tell us that Google is going to be buying Valve any second now. If you have to stop and think about why, you probably are not aware of Steam, Valve’s amazing content distribution platform.

I’m not familiar with Valve, but I am familiar with the video games it’s produced, such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, and Portal. The Inquirer suggests that it’s Valve’s Steam gaming platform that Google is interested in.

It’s not likely that Google would be interested in owning a gaming portal, but the actual technology behind Steam. Then again, I’m not much of a gamer and have never used Steam–so maybe some of you who have, can shed some light as to what Google might want from Valve.

UPDATE: Valve execs are saying this is a “complete fabrication.”

Save & Share

Similar Stories in: Rumors | Forward: Email This Post

11 comments on ““Any Second Now,” Google Will Acquire…”

SEO forums Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am

Valve created some really great games like half-life, google will definitely earn a lot with it.

SEO forums’s last blog post..Role of Meta Title Tag in SEO
QualityGal Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 10:52 am

The cake is a lie.

Maybe that’s what they’re interested in.
Seologia Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 10:52 am

It probably has a lot to do with the scientist that works at the LHC. Check out this creepy pic!

http://www.dcfblog.com.ar/2008/09/profecias/

Seologia’s last blog post..SearchMonkey, el nuevo mono de Yahoo!
Christian Vuong Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am

Taking control of Valve would be a very interesting move! Combine that with their control of Adscape Media, and well… they can create the Adwords for video games.
Mike P. Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am

Hey, if it happens, maybe Google will persuade Valve to actually develop for the Mac. We all know Google has a stellar mac development reputation.

/sarc

Mike P.’s last blog post..AdWords 201 : Negative Keywords for Increased CTR and Conversion
james Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 11:30 am

It’s probably a combination of things:

1) Google is made of Geeks. Geeks love Valve.

2) Steam is a pretty interesting platform from the end user perspective with a lot of features and a lot real estate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see ads within steam (it’s been a while since I’ve opened it, but they do internal advertising - for other games on the platform - to some extent already). Also, it would be interesting to integrate to some extent down the road with in game advertising with Valve.

3) Steam does seem to have a good architecture for moving big chunks of data and applications around fairly quickly. I don’t know how much about it is necessarily a unique solution, but I imagine they’ve innovated a decent amount on the back end. This alone could be interesting for Google to continue pushing us into the “cloud” (and back to having to request cycles from the mainframe computer, but you know).
Sébastien Billard Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am

Kewl, we will have soon free games
Google goes shopping - May buy Valve | MBA Geek Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

[...] this Google may be pursuing this acquisition, but a source claims that Google is really after their content distribution [...]
Nick Stamoulis Says:

September 17th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

Google = Taking over EVERY possible digital arena.
Search Engine News » Any Second Now, Google Will Acquire… Says:

September 18th, 2008 at 2:48 am

[...] More from http://www.marketingpilgrim.com…; [...]
Web Hosting Coupon Codes Says:

September 18th, 2008 at 9:48 pm

I play valve games like cs 1.6 and cs source but I don’t know why google would want to buy it. This is probably a myth

Web Hosting Coupon Codes’s last blog post..HostMonster Promo 2008 - Only $4.95/month

Marketing Pilgrim