3 ms·

True, although I thought there was another big one whose name escapes me. Any ideas? Thanks for mentioning that for the rest of HN’s sake.

_heimdall 3y ago
Looks like Wikipedia actually has the full list. DoubleClick and Waze are two other big ones that I remember seeming important at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
- aspenmayer 3y ago
  Thanks for that list! One of my favorite Wikipedia-isms are these very “list of” pages. I’m pretty sure it was Keyhole, for what it’s worth. Curiously, both Google and Keyhole are In-Q-Tel investments, although I’m not sure if that impacted/steered/influenced the acquisition, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#History https://web.archive.org/web/20130605121646/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-05-09/meet-the-cias-venture-capitalist https://web.archive.org/web/20130605121646/http://www.busine... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel From that page: > As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were kept secret, according to the Washington Post. The absence of disclosure can be due to national security concerns or simply because a startup company doesn’t want its financial ties to intelligence publicized. > […] > While In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation, it differs from IARPA and other models in that its employees and trustees can profit from its investment. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that in 2016, nearly half of In-Q-Tel's trustees had a financial connection with a company the corporation had funded. https://web.archive.org/web/20160831020609/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cias-venture-capital-firm-like-its-sponsor-operates-in-the-shadows-1472587352 https://web.archive.org/web/20160831020609/https://www.wsj.c... Which is to say, apparently insider trading isn’t just “illegal except when Congress/the President does it, except when it is illegal, actually,” if I’m parsing all this correctly; apparently In-Q-Tel gets special treatment too, in some cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_trading_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_tra... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading#By_members_of_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading#By_members_of_...

_heimdall 3y ago

Looks like Wikipedia actually has the full list. DoubleClick and Waze are two other big ones that I remember seeming important at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...

aspenmayer 3y ago
Thanks for that list! One of my favorite Wikipedia-isms are these very “list of” pages. I’m pretty sure it was Keyhole, for what it’s worth. Curiously, both Google and Keyhole are In-Q-Tel investments, although I’m not sure if that impacted/steered/influenced the acquisition, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#History https://web.archive.org/web/20130605121646/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-05-09/meet-the-cias-venture-capitalist https://web.archive.org/web/20130605121646/http://www.busine... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel From that page: > As of 2016, In-Q-Tel listed 325 investments, but more than 100 were kept secret, according to the Washington Post. The absence of disclosure can be due to national security concerns or simply because a startup company doesn’t want its financial ties to intelligence publicized. > […] > While In-Q-Tel is a nonprofit corporation, it differs from IARPA and other models in that its employees and trustees can profit from its investment. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that in 2016, nearly half of In-Q-Tel's trustees had a financial connection with a company the corporation had funded. https://web.archive.org/web/20160831020609/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cias-venture-capital-firm-like-its-sponsor-operates-in-the-shadows-1472587352 https://web.archive.org/web/20160831020609/https://www.wsj.c... Which is to say, apparently insider trading isn’t just “illegal except when Congress/the President does it, except when it is illegal, actually,” if I’m parsing all this correctly; apparently In-Q-Tel gets special treatment too, in some cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_trading_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_tra... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading#By_members_of_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading#By_members_of_...