Google Ready To Put Up $100M For VC Arm's First Year
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Google's venture capital arm will have $100 million at its disposal in its first year, WSJ reports. The company is expected to unveil more details about its VC plans on Tuesday. About eight months after Google said it was starting a formal venture capital arm, the search giant has tapped William Maris, former entrepreneur who has worked as an investor and helped to form the venture, will be partnering with Rich Miner, who was moved over from Google's mobile unit, on running the project, dubbed Google Ventures.
The initiative has been compared to VC arms like Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Investment and Disney's Steamboat Ventures, which often invest in companies that can serve as a complement to their parents' existing product offerings. Instead, Google is said to be looking to back a variety of start-ups, albeit ones that are more assured to produce actual returns as opposed to an extension of Google (NSDQ: GOOG). The Mountain View, CA.-based company does have a track record of making strategic investments over the years. It has often put up large amounts of capital, as in the case of powerline internet, WiMax. Lately, the company's been looking more vulnerable to the economic downturn then it previously let on. That vulnerability will likely determine how carefully it aims its $100 million largess over the coming 12 months.
By David Kaplan