In the world of football the system of transfer windows ensures that selling and acquiring players can only take place in certain time periods of the year. I wonder if the same system should be applied to other businesses, specifically the lucrative niche of “promising-internet-start-up- certain-to-be-acquired-by-Google&co-any-minute”. A transfer window would at least give a start-up a few months to develop an idea before it is grabbed by Google & co. Om Malik noted a while ago that Google actively goes after start-ups in a very early phase to secure the talent before anyone else does. But at least they didn’t get YouTube cheap, or did they? Too soon to tell.