7 biggest Google acquisitions that reshaped the internet

Google has become a tech giant through bold acquisitions — from YouTube and Nest to its recent record-breaking $32.5 billion deal for cloud security firm Wiz. Each of these investments has not only strengthened the company’s business but also redefined entire sectors, shaping the way we use services and gadgets today.

Android Police lists seven companies Google bought that permanently changed the internet.

The deals that built the Google empire

In 2006, Google paid $1.65 billion for what was then a small video-sharing site — YouTube. Today, the platform is valued between $200–400 billion, generates over $50 billion in annual revenue, and has become the de facto television of the internet age and a hub for streaming, news, and education.

Two years later, the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick cemented Google’s dominance in online advertising. That deal turned the company into the leading collector and analyst of user data — shaping the structure of the modern web.

In 2012, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. Though it later sold much of the business to Lenovo, it retained critical patents that helped protect the Android ecosystem from licensing threats and laid the groundwork for today’s Pixel devices.

The 2013 purchase of Israeli navigation startup Waze for $1.3 billion introduced real-time, crowd-sourced traffic data, dramatically improving Google Maps and giving Google a powerful edge in digital mapping.

The $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest Labs in 2014 launched Google into the smart home market. Though not a major revenue driver, the integration of Nest’s thermostats and cameras helped popularize home automation and gave Google new streams of user data.

In 2018, Google paid $1.1 billion to acquire a major design team from HTC — the same team behind early Pixel phones. This gave Google full control over the hardware and software development of its smartphones, helping establish a new industry benchmark with seven years of updates.

Lastly, the 2019 acquisition of analytics platform Looker for $2.6 billion bolstered Google Cloud by offering businesses flexible data modeling and self-service tools. It extended Google’s influence beyond advertising and made its cloud services more competitive with AWS.

Together, these moves explain why regulators worldwide are now investigating Google’s dominance — and why the company still leads across innovation areas from video and ads to analytics and smart homes. Whether the Wiz deal matches the success of YouTube or Waze remains to be seen, but history shows: never underestimate Google’s appetite for strategic acquisitions.

Previously, we reported on Google Wallet testing NFC card support.

We also noted Gmail’s new "Manage Subscriptions" page that helps users instantly unsubscribe from spam emails.