Did You Know Google Was Almost Sold For $1 Million In 1999?

Last week, Google turned 25. Started in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the tech giant now has a market cap of $1.71 trillion. But did you know that a little-known American company had rejected to buy Google for just under $1 million in the year 1999?

When Larry Page & Sergey Brin Wanted To Sell Google

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What happened was, in 1999, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were looking to sell Google to search engine portal Excite for $1 million. But Excite¡¯s CEO George Bell decided to reject the offer.

¡°It¡¯s very easy to look back and say should have, could have, and would have. I think the decision we made at the time, with what we knew, was a good decision. It¡¯s laughable to say that now, I suppose,¡± Excite¡¯s CEO said a few years ago, recalling the offer.

Also Read: How Elon Musk Had Almost Sold Tesla To Google For $6 Billion In 2013

Why Excite Rejected The Offer To Buy Google

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As per various media reports, Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures (one of Excite's venture capitalists) got Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to agree to sell the company to Excite for $1 million. Excite¡¯s CEO George Bell wasn¡¯t interested. After he rejected Page and Brin¡¯s $1 million price for Google, Khosla talked the duo down to $750,000. But Excite CEO still rejected that.

He recalled that Google¡¯s asking price was (down to) between $250,000 to $500,000 and 1% of Excite and that the issue was not in the financial terms but in the larger deal points. ¡°Larry Page insisted that we have to rip out all of the Excite search technology and replace it with Google,¡± Excite CEO Bell said, as per CNBC.

He says culture was more important than opportunity, recalling ¡°When you think about running companies, you think about culture, the people, the products, and the growth as being central to your identity and opportunity. At the end of the day, that¡¯s what I prioritized.¡± Hence, Excite went on to reject the chance of buying Google for just under $1 million.

Well, thinking about that offer today, it¡¯s fair to say that Google founders Larry and Sergey are certainly better off that Google kept its independence and become the tech giant that it is today, with its parent Alphabet having a $1.71 trillion market cap. The two co-founders of Google are among the world's 10 richest people.

Also Read: How A Lost iPhone Led To Warren Buffett Investing Billions In Apple

10 Big Mergers That Didn't Go Through

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From Yahoo, Microsoft, Whtsapp, Google, Twitter to Facebook, a lot of big names in the tech and software industry were given no as an answer despite offering millions of dollars for a deal of acquisition or merger.

Click here to learn about some of the biggest tech mergers that got rejected.

1) Yahoo! rejected $44.6 billion offer from Microsoft (2008)

2) Snapchat rejected $3 billion offer from Facebook (2013)

3) WhatsApp rejected $1 billion offer from Google (2013)

4) Groupon rejected $6 billion offer from Google (2010)

5) Facebook rejected $1 billion offer from Yahoo! (2006)

6) Twitter rejected $500 million offer from Facebook (2008)

7) Rovio rejected $2.25 billion offer from Zynga (2011)

8) Foursquare rejected $200 million offer from Yahoo! (2010)

9) Friendster rejected $30 million offer from Google (2003)

10) Qwiki rejected $150 million offer from Google (2010)

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