Word is that Google paid $50 million when it recently bought JotSpot (a deal that was arranged over a month ago but was only announced yesterday). Word also is that JotSpot's technology is a piece of crap — which its competitors gleefully acknowledge, though in more appropriate terms. So why did Google dump that much money?

Maybe they wanted the bold-name talent of founder Joe Kraus (also a founder of that dot-com bubble poster child Excite). Maybe Kraus has blackmail on someone in the Google mergers and acquisitions department. Or maybe at Google's level, with $10 billion in cash floating around, the difference between $10 mil and $50 mil isn't worth picking over.

Earlier: Google buys JotSpot [Valleywag]

Contact information for this author is not available.