US vacation rentals website HomeAway, which has been in the spotlight over the past few months for its acquisitions, has now attracted attention from the Google Ventures investment fund.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that Google bought shares from existing shareholders as the company did not need extra funding. The story does not detail how much money was invested.
“Google is a product and engineering-centric company that is growing up and becoming more of a business,” Brian Sharples, HomeAway founder and CEO, told The New York Times. “HomeAway came from more of a business, deal-making culture and now we’re trying to move the company to more of an engineering and product culture.”
techcrunch.com quotes a source as saying that Google has invested around US$25 million in HomeAway at a $1.4 billion valuation. venturebeat.com adds that the company has raised $470 million in five years, and that there are rumours of an initial public offering in 2011.
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