Legal Research

Google Decides To Give Money Away

Google has announced Google Ventures, a venture capital fund that they will use to fund promising start-ups:

“We’ll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet. Central to our effort will be our fellow Googlers, whom we view as a critically important resource to help educate us about potential investments areas and evaluate specific companies.”

When I read the announcement, I wondered how Google Ventures will play nice with Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, which has been in a state of flux since its Chief, Dr. Larry Brilliant, changed roles last month.  The NY Times (sort of) has an answer for me:

“The venture unit comes as Google is rethinking the mission of Google.org, its corporate philanthropy, which has invested in areas like clean energy. Some of those investments will now be made by the venture unit.”

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on March 31, 2009 (boomark / email).