Investors hoping for a little extra money – and small startups hoping for a lot – are going to need to find someone or something other than Google to provide it. The search giant’s CEO said yesterday that he intends to let his company’s checkbook collect a little dust.
You’ll no doubt remember that Google used to snap up businesses left and right. Occasionally the deals were useful (Android); every so often they turned into dead ends (Dodgeball, Jaiku). But Google spent millions upon millions of dollars, behaving like some sort of corporate Hoover.
Eric Schmidt informed Reuters at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference that he’ll now stick to “very very conservative investments” instead.
He also stated, “We’ve not really discussed a dividend payment. At the moment our view is to let the cash pile up.” Which may disappoint people who’ve stuck by as the stock dropped from a 52-week high of 602.45 to its current price of 315.49.
Still, this stinginess doesn’t necessarily signify something bad. Onlookers have long pushed for Google to grow less acquisition-happy, and, well, the company’s never offered shareholders a dividend. A comment Schmidt made to CNBC is encouraging, too; in regards to revenue, the CEO said, “From my perspective it’s hard to imagine why you’d see a decline.”
