Google Protects Its Algorithm

About a month ago an internet marketing company, iAcquire.com, was caught by a blogger selling and buying links.  This is a violation of Google's guidelines.  Google's response was to de-index iAcquire's website.  This means that one is able to find iAcquire's site on Google.  It is possible to find the site on Bing, but in Google's world the site no longer exists.  In the SEO world iAcquire.com has/had about fifty employees which is a good size company.  

I have several thoughts about this event. 

1) Lots of companies buy links.  I have experience of being approach to put links on some of my sites.  The companies that approached me are reputable and their websites have a page rank of six and seven.  (It is possible the company has hired a SEO company and does not know what the SEO firm they hired is doing.)   But I think buying links is a common practice.  

2) I do not think Google would have de-indexed the site if the link buying had not been made public.  If Google had found this out on their own I believe they would have penalized the site, lowered the website's page rank and moved the site to page five of the SERPs.

3) Whether you buy links is related to your business plan and your risk profile.  If you can live with the potential of being de-indexed and the rewards of moving up the Search Engine Results Page is high then buying links might be a good idea.  Personally, I would never do it and I have never consulted with a business in which I have recommend it - too much risk. 

4) I don't think buying and selling links is a moral issue.  Buying and selling links does not work with Google's business model and search algorithm so they discourage it.  Some SEO's act like selling links/buying links is a moral issue.  I don't think so.