I’ve put together an infographic depicting five of the mega websites who dominate so much of our lives online. It shows how many companies they have bought in each year of their existence. It’s nothing to do with value of companies (a lot of them are undisclosed anyway), just the number of individual companies taken over.

Bearing in mind its limitations I think it shows a few interesting things. Here’s a few I’ve picked out:

• That Google have been in a takeover overdrive (takeoverdrive?) in the last two years, defying the general approach of the other big boys. They assimilated 106 (!) companies in a ten year period and are showing no signs of stopping.

• There is a pattern for big growth and it starts with your first takeover after year three. All of these five have done this – if you’re not starting at this point then it seems you ain’t going in the right direction.

• eBay and Amazon have been pretty similar in their growth, with eBay just a bit more steady.

• Facebook are relative newcomers to the scene but look in a good position and all set to follow in the footsteps of the other big boys (yep you heard it hear first, Facebook are ‘ones to watch’...). It will also be interesting to see what Twitter start doing if they enter this race.

• Yahoo have done alright away from the headlines. Well done Yahoo!

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