Google Shuts Slide Social Apps Firm

San Francisco - Slide, the social apps company that Google bought just over a year ago for about $200 million, will be dissolved and its leader Max Levchin will depart the internet giant, Google confirmed to AllThingsDigital.

A Google spokesperson said late Thursday, "Max has decided to leave Slide and Google to pursue other opportunities, and we wish him the best. Most of the team from Slide will remain at Google to work on other opportunities."

After being acquired, Slide operated as an independent unit out of Google's San Francisco office, maintaining existing apps like "SuperPoke! Pets" and experimenting with new ones such as messaging app "Disco" and photo-sharing app "Photovine," which was released only last week.

The apps, none of which were extremely popular, will be sunsetted over the next few months.

The news was announced to employees at an all-staff meeting in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon, sources said.

A person familiar with the matter said that some of the Slide team was expected to land at YouTube, which is also operated independently within Google. Slide has about 100 employees, the source added.

Though Slide as an independent start-up had not matched its lofty expectations and valuations -- at as much as $500 million in a 2008 funding round -- its acquisition brought Google some key assets, including social web expertise at a time when it was dearly needed and the indomitable Levchin, who famously co-founded PayPal.

But that was in August 2010. Since then, Google entrusted its social efforts in the hands of two of its existing executives, Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, who led the team that created Google+. Levchin was left on the fringes with Slide as an autonomous subsidiary, reporting to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Plus, at the time Slide was bought, Google CEO Larry Page had not yet reassumed leadership of the company. In April, Page consolidated and streamlined Google's product structure into seven distinct units. Even though the social team may have been the natural fit for Slide, the two were not integrated.

Source: allthingsd.com/20110825/max-levchin-to-leave-google-as-slide-is-shut-down/