The $750,000 Mistake That Let Google Get Away

In 1999, Google could reportedly have been bought for about $750,000. Excite, one of the biggest web portals of the era, said no. Why did smart, experienced people pass on the deal of the century, and what can we learn from how they reasoned? In this video: the portal business model, the side-by-side search test, the condition that killed the deal, the collapse of Excite@Home, and Google's rise to a $23 billion IPO. Where sources disagree (on the price and on why Excite passed), we say so. Chapters 0:00 The $750,000 offer 0:32 The real question 1:04 The rise of Excite 1:54 The portal business 2:52 Two students and a better idea 4:03 The middleman and the price 5:31 The bake-off 7:12 The condition 8:29 Google gets its funding 9:38 The fall of Excite@Home 11:05 Google's trajectory 12:07 In Bell's defense 13:39 Three lessons 15:04 Next: Knight Capital Sources TechCrunch (2010): https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/29/goo... Fortune (2010): https://fortune.com/2010/09/29/excite... CNBC (2015): https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/02/dotco... Internet History Podcast, George Bell interview: https://www.internethistorypodcast.co... Steven Levy, In the Plex (2011), via BGR: https://bgr.com/general/the-crazy-sto... Search Engine Land: https://searchengineland.com/how-blun... Google press release, June 7, 1999 (via The Next Web): https://thenextweb.com/news/googles-p... Cybercultural, Google in 1999: https://cybercultural.com/p/google-1999/ NPR (Jan. 1999): https://www.npr.org/1999/01/19/103188... CNN Money (Sept. 28, 2001): https://money.cnn.com/2001/09/28/deal... InternetNews (Dec. 2001): https://internetnews.com/it-managemen... The Register (Aug. 19, 2004): https://www.theregister.com/2004/08/1... Narration: AI-generated voice. Graphics: original. This video is an independent analysis and is not affiliated with Google, Alphabet, Excite, IAC, Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia Capital.