Google acquires JotSpot.

With almost $11 billion cash in the bank, Google (GOOG) continues its acquisitions frenzy. The last one being JotSpot a small company of 26 employees offering an enhanced version of the famous free collaboration software, WIKI. JotSpot claims to have more than 2000 companies as customers including eBay and Intel and more than 30,000 paying customers and 300,000 free ones. Their enhancement to WIKI is in the form of WYSIWYG editor, an integrated spreadsheet, calendar, photo-albums, making it sounding like the Google web based productivity apps, adding the collaboration dimension.

Is this move aimed at getting Google inside corporate IT shops? is it aimed at offering a Google office on the web? Is it another vehicle for ads placement? I have to admit that I got lost here. If Google starts to believe in the web2.0 hype, it is dangerous and it is another step towards irrational exuberance that I still taste its bitterness. The pressure is high on Eric Schmidt to come up with new business channels as the company ads channel start to beat TV ads in some markets and more money is pouring in, but falling in the web2.0 trap can be dramatic not only for Google but for the whole high tech industry.

Ironically the owner of JotSpot is no other than Joe Kraus, co-founder of Excite, who after selling it to AtHome in 1999 at the top of the bubble for $7 billion!!!!, took a sabbatical and went on a 9 months world travel with his fiancée. I am sure that being an old acquaintance of Eric Schmidt did help in selling this startup with only $5M investment from MayField Fund and RedPoint Ventures and $100000 seed money for himself. The @Home_Network did not survive the bubble and ended up filing bankruptcy for defaulting payment of its internet provider ATT !!!

So for those who ask where is the money that everybody lost during the crash did? You can guess that part of it went to Mr. Kraus :-)