Google and ICOA: The big deal that wasn't

Google was reported to be acquiring Wi-fi provider ICOA. But both ICOA and Google have loudly denied that there were ever any talks at all. 

|
Reuters
Coffee cups with Google logos are seen at the new Google office in Toronto in November.

Earlier today, word trickled out that Mountain View megalith Google would snap up ICOA, a Wi-Fi provider based in Warwick, R.I. The move was seen as an effort by Google to increase its network capability.

"As the amount of data traffic increases," one analyst wrote in Computerworld, "so has also the importance of Wi-Fi as a way to offload cellular networks."

The only problem: Google isn't actually interested in ICOA, and may not have entered talks with the company at all. In a feistily-worded message to TechCrunch this afternoon, ICOA CEO George Strouthopoulos called the rumors "NOT TRUE" (the caps are his). 

"Never had any discussions with any potential acquirers! This is absolutely false!" Strouthopoulos wrote. "Someone, I guess a stock promoter with a dubious interest, is disseminating wrong, false and misleading info in the PR circles."

Google has separately denied the rumors in an interview with Mashable

So what happened, exactly? Well, the whole mess can be traced to this press release, which was published on PRWeb.com, and which states that in acquiring ICOA, Google is looking to "further diversify it's already impressive portfolio of companies." 

PRWeb doesn't exactly have a lot of barriers to entry, or a particularly rigorous approval and verification process: Users simply sign up for a free account and post away. Reps for the site haven't yet explained how the erroneous ICOA/Google press release got up there, but it's not unreasonable to assume, as ICOA's Strouthopoulos argued, that the whole thing was an elaborate attempt to drive up stock prices. 

Updates when we have them. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Google and ICOA: The big deal that wasn't
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2012/1126/Google-and-ICOA-The-big-deal-that-wasn-t
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe