IIRC, one plausible reason for not spinning out products is their dependence on Google's infra. Which, okay, ya, sure. Grant the fledgling a year long grace per

IIRC, one plausible reason for not spinning out products is their dependence on Google's infra. Which, okay, ya, sure. Grant the fledgling a year long grace period to extract itself. Business units are spun out, traded like baseball cards, all the time. Of course, I'd bet the biggest reason against is "Why bother?" Though if Google had been nurturing spinoffs all this time, maybe it could have salvaged it's brand / mindshare.