Google's 5 Biggest Blunders

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 00:22 IST   |    8 Comments
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4. Investing in AOL:
Investing in AOL
In 2005, Google paid $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL. Four years later, after AOL's revenue fell by 23 percent to $968 million, including an 18 percent decline in online advertising revenue and a 27 percent, Google decided to sell stakes for $283 million. At the time, Google may have thought it needed AOL to keep its search share strong, but AOL's audience declined and Google's organic search share skyrocketed over the same period.