GOOGLE have paid about €44 million for UK-based internet price comparison company, BeatThatQuote – which was set up by an English Cypriot – and then proceeded to practically banish it from its search engine.
The direct link to the site is gone from Google’s search rankings, although it can be found from other search engines, such as Yahoo.
Launched in 2005 by John Paleomylites, BeatThatQuote compares prices across a range of products from insurance and utilities to legal and financial services.
It was the UK’s number one start-up company according to a 2008 report and the UK’s fastest growing website in 2007. It has also won multiple awards.
BeatThatQuote’s press office was unable to comment on their acquisition on Monday, referring questions to Google directly.
Google remained reticent saying they were “excited about working with [BeatThatQuote’s] team. With their expertise and our technology, we will be able to provide new and innovative ways for customers to find the right financial products and save money.”
The reason that BeatThatQuote’s Google ratings have taken a plunge is that part of its content is shared with another internet company, moneyhelponline.com, Freddie Cerva, director of Cyprus-based internet technology company, FC Advance Solutions, explained. Duplication of content is forbidden under Google’s terms of service. The websites were last cached on March 3 and so it could be a coincidence that BeatThatQuote disappeared off Google after being bought by them. If it really just is a coincidence, then this would suggest Google made a mistake and failed to realise that they bought a company which may have violated its rules.
There is still however room for speculation.
“It is likely Google has plans for the company and might want to reduce its visibility and number of visitors until those changes were underway… This company now belongs to Google and they have a right to take it off their rankings,” said Amer Eltagi the director of another Cyprus-based internet company, eVenzia Technologies.
Meantime, the company itself welcomed its purchase.
“Our team is excited about becoming a part of Google… We think we can offer more transparency and better pricing information than existing online offerings,” said the managing director and founder Paleomylites.
Paleomylites successfully created and sold a data-security firm, JCP, to Sun Microsystems for more than €46 million in 2000. He said in a 2010 interview that his motivation consists in “not wanting to work for other people who I didn’t necessarily think were quite as talented as they thought they were.”
