At a recent tech conference, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) director of corporate development, Salman Ullah, said that he looks for "really crazy" acquisitions. I'm not yet sure whether the latest of Google's numerous deals, its buyout of Marratech, fits in that category.
Privately held and based in Sweden, Marratech develops downloadable conferencing software for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) platforms, including chat, document-sharing, and online videoconferencing.
Marratech doesn't seem like a crazy company; it's cleverly chasing a big market. According to a study from Frost & Sullivan, Web-based collaboration software is expected to surge from a $932 million market in 2006 to $2.6 billion by 2010. That's exactly the kind of growth and market potential a Google-sized company needs.
Caspio CEO Frank Zamani, whose company develops online business applications for customers like Office Depot, GE, and Borders, shared his thoughts on the deal with me. "This acquisition gives Google a product in its business offerings that companies are actually used to paying money for," he said. "Almost every business needs it."
Web conferencing is also a high-margin business, as industry leader WebEx (Nasdaq: WEBX) proves. Last year, the company posted revenues of $380 million and operating income of $107 million. Remember that Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is currently buying WebEx for a cool $3.2 billion.
Other companies in the space include Microsoft, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), and Citrix (Nasdaq: CTXS), all of which charge premium rates for their services.
In typical fashion, Google has provided little detail about its intentions for Marratech. Google's blog seems to suggest the deal was made for internal purposes. If that's really the case, well, the Google itself would be really crazy not to make a move for the conferencing marketplace.
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Fool contributor Tom Taulli, author of The Complete M&A Handbook, does not own shares mentioned in this article. He is currently ranked 2,719 out of 25,386 in CAPS. Borders and Microsoft are Inside Value picks. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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