 Google was put on sale in 1999? In 1999, Yahoo and Excite held the top spots in search engine popularity. Larry Page pitched a sale of Google to Excite CEO George Bell. Page wanted 750,001% of Excite to let go of his fledgling search engine. At the time, Bell considered the offer competitive except for one detail. Page wanted Excite to ditch its search engine technology and adopt Google's system. Bell declined the offer and threw himself into internet lore. In 2022, most people don't know the name Excite, but everyone knows and uses Google. The company is now worth over $300 billion, and now you know.