How tech companies are interconnected

July 28, 2011

Topic

Network Visualization  /  ,

Sarah Kessler and Nick Sigler examine the interconnectedness between major tech companies. I think this might be the beginnings of a tech version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Chart Type Used

Organogram

14 Comments

  • Stuart Ciske — July 28, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    I thought “family” trees like that were illegal in the US. on the other hand, I also think that is the plot tree to every daytime drama that ever aired on TV!

  • gasche — July 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    I don’t think it has meaning to consider two companies “related” when one is founded by an employee of the other. The relation between “Microsoft” and “Stack Overflow” seems very shallow to me; Joel Spolsky worked 3 years at MS, so what? Given the size of this firm, a large portion of people have worked, or done an internship at MS, that doesn’t mean that every companies they participate in is somewhat “related”. Same goes for Apple, Google, etc.

    It would be more meaningful if only high-level executives where considered : if one of the co-founder of a company creates a company, that’s a relation.

    • Rubadubdub — July 28, 2011 at 4:12 pm

      With that cheery attitude you’re sure to make some woman utterly miserable some day.

      • ben — July 30, 2011 at 1:08 am

        atleast his comment was to the point and interesting, while your are only getting personal…

    • Bill — July 30, 2011 at 1:49 am

      gasche makes a good point. However, the graphic shows interconnectedness rather than relatedness,

  • jm — July 28, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar

    Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was acquired by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986.

  • dan l — July 28, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

  • ndg — July 29, 2011 at 4:45 am

    Given its status as a youth employer, adding McDonald’s to the mix would likely unveil a vast conspiracy perched astride the business world like a monstrous spider with golden-arched legs.

  • Nick — July 29, 2011 at 7:35 am

    What about Reid Hoffman of paypal, LinkedIn fame. Someone should redo this from an investment perspective.

  • Bill — July 30, 2011 at 1:56 am

    The information contained in the graphic is very useful to someone interested in the history of computing, the Internet and the web. I would like to see this expanded to make it even more comprehensive, and also kept up-to-date as an ongoing contribution to the history of high-tech business. It deserves a site to itself.

  • R Longley — July 30, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    Good work.. for starters. I’m a dinosaur from the days when the “Geneology of Silicon Valley” charts were updated annually. These kinds of charts are great, in general – they preserve a bit of history.

    My only complaint is that I prefer company founding dates to determine order top to bottom, left to right. But what is art?

    I hope several of you readers are inspired to explore variations of your thesis!