That's the case with most big companies. They have one hit - the initial product that made them big in the first place - and a bunch of acquisitions. In some cases (Microsoft), their big hit was even an acquisition.
It's because most new products fail. Whether they're developed by a startup or a big company. But big companies have the luxury of a lot of cash that they can use to buy the products that are already successful. If you compare internal efforts that have to pass through Sturgeon's Law vs. acquired startups that have already passed the "successful" filter, of course the ones that are already successful will be more successful. It's a tautology. ;-)
Google is actually doing better than most big companies, with at least three internally-developed products that are big hits (Search, GMail, and Orkut).
It's because most new products fail. Whether they're developed by a startup or a big company. But big companies have the luxury of a lot of cash that they can use to buy the products that are already successful. If you compare internal efforts that have to pass through Sturgeon's Law vs. acquired startups that have already passed the "successful" filter, of course the ones that are already successful will be more successful. It's a tautology. ;-)
Google is actually doing better than most big companies, with at least three internally-developed products that are big hits (Search, GMail, and Orkut).