Google spent $1.8 billion to buy 48 companies last year

Google bought 48 companies during 2010, a buying spree that cost the Internet giant $1.8 billion, and a pace of acquisitions the company said it plans to continue through 2011.

The price Google paid for the companies, their technology and their talent included $681 million for the mobile advertising technology company AdMob; $179 million for social technology company Slide; $158 million for Widevine Technologies, a content protection and video optimization company; and $123 million for On2, a developer of video compression technology. The price tags of those companies, plus an additional 44 acquisitions totaling $669 million, were disclosed in Google's 10-K form recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Google's acquisitions price tag did not include the largest purchase it announced in 2010 -- its proposed $700 million purchase of travel search company ITA Software, a deal that is being scrutinized by federal antitrust regulators.