hello.com used to be owned by Google, too. It came with the Picasa acquisition. He probably just asked Larry for both. It's not as if he were a random employee.

hello.com used to be owned by Google, too. It came with the Picasa acquisition. He probably just asked Larry for both. It's not as if he were a random employee. Somewhere on the Internet I saw that Google might own a stake (I'm a former Googler, but have no clue about any such arrangements).