I agree with a lot of what he wrote, but his own list of reasons why Google can't innovate refutes his assertion that they can "...by buying companies like Inst

I agree with a lot of what he wrote, but his own list of reasons why Google can't innovate refutes his assertion that they can "...by buying companies like Instagram". Once a company is acquired, all of the same constraints that apply to internal Google projects now apply to it. They are Google for all intents and purposes. "Strategy taxes" now apply, they'll have to port their iPhone app to Android, port their systems to Google infrastructure, and so on. That is, if the acquisition doesn't get gutted entirely and its employees redistributed to other projects. See AppJet, Jaiku, JotSpot, etc. The "Google Blackhole", or talent acquisitions.