
It's official: Google buys Zenter - drusenko
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
======
abstractbill
TechCrunch coverage here:

<http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/19/google-acquires-zenter-to-fill-out-
coming-powerpoint-application/>

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far33d
Well, now you have something to say to all those haters (the ones that think
you abandoned your families or whatever such nonsense).

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bk
What technology did Zenter use to build their service? Python? Java? I'm just
wondering if Google has a preference for certain technologies.

~~~
SwellJoe
It's predominantly JavaScript.

I believe the back end is Java.

~~~
paulgb
I think you are right. Whois.sc cached the server response headers before
Google switched the server, and it was "Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) DAV/2
mod_jk/1.2.21 SVN/1.4.4". mod_jk is a Tomcat connector, so it would make sense
that the site would be written in Java.

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zach
Good to hear, I hope it was a good payout for the founders!

~~~
gibsonf1
An incredible win-win. I'm looking forward to hearing the official buyout
cost! (And I'm looking forward to using the app.)

Will the founders survive at the Googleplex for long?

Was Google's earlier vaporware announcement a strategy to get Zenter at a
lower cost? Probably not, as they really need that app one way or another for
the suite. Excellent recovery that Zenter got bought instead of ending up on
ebay.

Also congratulations to the Y Combinator team - yet another good call added to
the record. The PR from this will be big.

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mqt
It's interesting that Zenter agreed to an acquisition before publicly
launching. I don't recall seeing this too often.

Would they have survived a presentation-ware duel with Google or would they
have suffered a fate similar to Kiko's?

I can't remember when I first heard about Zenter but it seems like I've been
anticipating its release for a while. We generally hear that it's good to
release early and update often so I'm interested in the story behind all of
this.

Would it have been better for them to hold out and build a user base so they
could be acquired for more money?

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gibsonf1
GigaOM Coverage: <http://gigaom.com/2007/06/19/enter-zenter-google-office-is-
now-complete/>

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aston
This makes the second service I know of (after Youtube) that Google's acquired
despite already having internal teams working on a product.

~~~
bootload
_"... Will the founders survive at the Googleplex for long? ..."_ && _"...
second service I know of (after Youtube) that Google's acquired despite
already having internal teams working on a product ..."_

I was wondering about this as well, then I read this post. It must have an
impact on the 'engineers' who work there having groups of buyouts with vesting
periods and larger payouts. There must be some level of resentment (it's human
nature). How does google manage this?

~~~
antirez
Yeah, also it is not particularly cool after you sold that you need to go at
Google to work on this stuff. I mean... ok... after some year the vesting
period expires and you are rich and goodbye, but in some way after the
acquisition you became a "worker" for Google with much less freedom than
before: this sucks.

~~~
pg
It's standard procedure to go work at the acquirer after getting bought. I did
it myself. It's not so bad. Having just become rich tends to put you in a
pretty cheerful mood, which makes all the everyday annoyances of working at a
big co slide off you. Plus Google is probably the most hacker-compatible of
all big cos.

~~~
antirez
_Plus Google is probably the most hacker-compatible of all big cos._

Maybe N years ago when google was a little startup. In every big company there
is the rule that you need to do a specific stuff, and this is the worst thing
that an hacker can suffer, at least in my experience: all the hackers I know
tend to switch domain every few months, just the time to understand "how it
works".

~~~
mulcher
If Google's going to pay me X million dollars or even X million GOOGs, I'd be
more than happy working there until the integration is complete.

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rokhayakebe
YC totally got a recipe.Paul G.tell us what it is. It has to be more than
"Make something people want".

~~~
brlewis
M.S.G.W.

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davidw
Yeah... something Larry and Sergey want is better than something that joe
schmoe wants:-)

Congratulations are in order, in any case!

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brezina
phew, now I don't need to pay back Robbie for that dinner I owe him.

Happy 1st Father's Day Wayne!

~~~
gduffy
I can do you one better ... Robbie OWES me a pizza. I like my pizza with
pepperoni and shares of GOOG.

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plusbryan
That's really exciting. Congrats to the team. And woot!, you just raised all
our valuations a little bit!

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far33d
Zenters - a question if you are around - did you ever end up hiring a non-
founder employee?

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vlad
Happy Father's Day (one of the founders is a father, right?)

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jamongkad
Congrats guys! happy to hear about your success!

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migpwr
Congrats to all yall as we say in the south!

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neilj
Congratulations to the Zenter team!

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ashu
Way to go, guys. Brilliant!

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trajan
Really exciting. Congrats.

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palish
Holy moly. Way to go!

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abstractbill
Awesome - well done!

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brianmckenzie
Way to go, Zenters!

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drusenko
Congrats guys : )

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akkartik
Please update the link: <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-
sharing.html>

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chris
Congrats dudes!!

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Readmore
Good work guys!

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Alex3917
Very nice :-)

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startupper
Congrats YC and Zenters!

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brett
Congrats.

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mattculbreth
Nice job!

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sharpshoot
wow - well done!

