Googles of cash

I've always expected that Niklas and Janus had Sergey and Larry in their future, though there are many who have argued with me on this. Om speculates on what network investments Google might make and why. Whatever they're up to, I'd say it looks like pretty serious stuff - today the company has filed a shelf registration to sell up to 14.8m shares, which at the current price implies $4.2bn proceeds. That's a major chunk of change, to be used for "general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures. In addition, we may use proceeds of this offering for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets. We have no current agreements or commitments with respect to any material acquisitions." Watch this space.

UPDATE: A Diamond Cluster mega-value reader kindly calls my attention to a stealth acquisition reported here yesterday, which adds some new ingredients to ponder. His take on the end-game:

"I'm thinking presence here. Search (and advertising) is the main perspective I'm sure, but the implications of a convergence later with a VoIP/presence product is intriguing."