AdMob Gets a Payday

We know you're waiting for the Google's (GOOG) latest stab at resolving the Book Search lawsuit, but it's been postponed till Friday. Meanwhile, here's another big headline for ya: Google has just bought AdMob, the company that specializes in bringing advertising to your mobile Internet device. The price tag? A breathtaking $750 million in Google stock. That's up in YouTube territory and one of the search giant's biggest gambles to date.

The Los Angeles Times has an excellent piece on the get, placing it in the context of Google's larger business model, as well as highlighting the company's potential to disrupt every industry on Earth outside of waste management. Google is in the advertising business, and its model is to provide free services or content for online users while pitching ads at them. Since smartphones are positioned to be the next big platform for these services, it makes sense that Google would want to make or buy tech that delivers those ads efficiently. Meanwhile, its notion of what might be offered for free has swelled so much that heretofore untouched industries have been hammered by Google's ambition. GPS navigation technology? Google's got that, driving TomTom's (TOM2) stock down 32 percent. Buying music online? Google just rolled out a serious competitor for iTunes. More and more, the search company is expanding its definition of what used to cost money, but can now be offered for free. Consumers will be thrilled, assuming they still have jobs after all the industries in the world have rolled over and died.

Finally, Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget reports that the reason why Google shelled out so much cash for AdMob is that Apple (AAPL) was trying to buy it as well. Blodget finds this mystifying. "Why would Apple want to go into the ad business?" he writes. Well, it seems to be working for Google.